UNIV.  Of  CALIF.  LIBf^ARY,  LOS  ANGBLEb 


LIBRARY  OF 

ARCHITECTURE  AND 

ALLIED  ARTS 


Gift  of 


The   Heirs 

_      ^  of 

R.    Germain  Hubby,    A. I. A 


1 


LOW  COST  SUBURBAN  HOMES 


Dwight  J.    Bnuiti,   architect 

Pointed  native  stone  has  been  effectively  used  in  this  Dutch  Colonial  residence.     For 
other   photographs   see   pages  76-81 


LOW  COST  SUBURBAN 

HOMES 

A  BOOK  OF  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THE  MAN  WITH 
THE  MODERATE  PURSE 


EDITED  BY 

RICHARDSON  WRIGHT 

Editor  of  House  ^  Garden 

Author  of  "Through  Siberia,"  "The  Open  Door,"  etc. 

Editor  of  "Inside  the  House  of  Good  Taste" 


NEW  YORK 
ROBERT  M.  McBRIDE  6s:  COMPANY 

1916 


Copyright,      1916,     by 
Robert  M.  McRride  c^-  Co. 


Published     April,    1916 


stack 
Annex 

7/e.o 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Service  of  the  Architect i 

Howard  Hammitt 

How  TO  Go  About  Plaxxixg  Your  Home ii 

C.  E.  Schermerhorn 

The  Cost  of  Different  Kinds  of  Building 21 

George  Hunt  Ingraham 

The  Promise  of  American  House  Building 31 

Ralph  Adams  Cram 

An  Album  of  Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 42 

Addresses  of  Contributing  Architects 120 


FOREWORD 

THE  HOUSE  NOT  MADE  WITH  HANDS 

HERE,  sirs,  you  can  read  of  it  —  the  house  that  is  made  with  hands. 
For  in  these  pages  you  witness  the  idea  of  a  house  being  crystal- 
lized into  a  material  entity.  Here  is  offered  a  choice  of  country 
houses  and  you  can  learn  how  you  and  your  architect  can  best  work  to- 
gether for  mutual  advantage.  You  can  see  to  the  gardens  that  will  surround 
it,  the  hardware,  the  plumbing,  the  lighting,  the  closets  for  the  wife,  the 
sturdy  walls  and  the  roof.  It's  an  interesting  process,  this  building  a  house 
from  the  idea  up.     To  read  of  it  stimulates ;  ambition  is  awakened. 

Much  the  same  materials  are  being  used  to-day  as  were  used  centuries 
ago.  We  have  improved  on  them ;  we  are  making  things  more  comfortable 
according  to  our  conceptions  of  comfort,  and  more  sanitary  and  more  lovely 
to  look  upon,  but  each  generation  brings  its  own  improvement  in  the  meas- 
ure of  its  added  wisdom  over  the  generation  that  has  gone.  The  bathroom 
that  was  a  luxury  of  yesterday  is  a  necessity  of  to-day.  Yet  back  of  all  build- 
ing and  building  improvement  is  a  mightier  force  than  that  of  steel  and  stone 
and  concrete.  The  house  to-day  is  the  product  of  ages  of  improvement  in 
customs.  Customs  make  houses  what  they  are  to-day  ;  they  are  the  architects 
and  masons  and  carpenters  of  the  house  not  built  with  hands. 

Houses,  a  recent  author  claims,  were  made  primarily  to  shelter  and 
protect  the  child.  Was  it  the  tree-house  of  the  tropics  or  cave-house  of  the 
mountain  dwellers  or  the  hall  of  the  sturdy  folk  of  the  north,  for  the  child's 
sake  a  home  was  devised  to  protect  it  against  the  heat  of  summer  and  the 
cold  of  winter.  Sociologists  are  only  now  awakening  to  the  fact  that  the 
love  of  father  and  mother  for  child  antedated  the  love  of  husband  and  wife. 

From  the  cave  dwelling  developed  the  hall  —  or  cave  above  ground  — 
and  from  the  hall  came  the  modern  house.  Traces  of  the  influence  of  the 
cave  as  a  model  may  be  seen  in  the  construction  of  the  hall.  The  hall  stood 
east  and  west,  with  the  door  in  the  western  end  giving  less  access  to  cold 
winds.  The  roof  was  pitched  high  so  that  the  smoke  could  rise  above  the 
eyes.  The  lines  of  the  roof  were  irregular,  so  that  a  foe  would  mistake  it 
for  a  grass-grown  mound  of  earth.  The  entrance  was  through  the  western 
gable,  whose  lintel  was  so  low  and  threshold  so  high  that  no  enemy  could 
enter  without  difficulty.     There  was  a  window,  too,  in  the  center  of  the  roof, 


Foreword 

through  which  the  smoke  passed  out,  and  where  stood  the  guard  in  times  of 
danger.  It  was  one  big  room  without  partitions  or  stories,  and  all  the  furni- 
ture was  what  we  call  built-in.  In  those  days  the  sign  of  a  man's  strength 
was  that  he  could  tear  the  furniture  from  its  fastening!  A  table  ranged 
down  the  middle  of  the  room,  wnth  a  bench  on  either  side,  the  middle  of 
which  was  raised  above  the  level  of  the  rest  and  reserved  for  the  master  of 
the  hall  and  his  wife,  the  distinguished  guest  sitting  opposite.  As  this  w^as 
situated  near  the  fire,  it  w^as  also  a  place  of  great  comfort.  Tw^o  sacred 
things  were  in  this  house  —  the  high  posts,  usually  decorated  wath  carvings 
of  the  gods,  that  separated  the  master's  seat,  and  the  cord  that  closed  the 
roof  window  in  hours  of  danger.  It  takes  no  great  stretch  of  the  imagina- 
tion to  build  up  from  these  rudimentary  things  our  modern  master's  suite 
in  the  house,  and  the  custom  of  locking  up  the  house  at  night ! 

The  desire  for  privacy  —  an  acquired  custom  —  brought  about  the  di- 
vision of  the  hall  into  rooms.  The  women's  seat  on  the  long  bench  marked 
the  place  where  a  partition  w^as  erected,  and  that  space  further  subdivided 
into  sleeping  boxes  or  "  lock-beds  " —  little  more  than  closets  into  which 
the  sleeper  locked  himself.  Another  partition  or  wall  was  erected  parallel 
to  the  west  gable,  making  a  space  that  was  divided  into  four  rooms,  two 
above  and  tw^o  below.  One  became  an  entry,  one  a  storeroom,  another  a 
sleeping  place.  Thus  the  sleeping  places  went  froiu  the  ground  floor  to 
their  present  positions  upstairs. 

When  the  life  of  the  family  became  too  complex  for  the  rooms  inside 
the  house,  other  buildings  were  erected  close  by.  Thus  there  was  the  guest 
house  —  still  used  to-day  on  some  large  estates ;  the  seething-house  for 
cooking,  which  can  be  seen  on  Southern  plantations,  an  improvement  on 
which  is  being  advocated  in  a  community  kitchen  and  bakery  of  the  town  of 
to-morrow  ;  bath  houses,  constructed  near  springs,  to  wdiich  water  w^as  con- 
ducted in  stone  pipes.  In  addition  there  w^ere  barns,  byres,  stables,  sheep- 
folds  and  pigsties. 

The  fireplace  was  built  to  conserve  the  fire  when  wood  began  to  grow 
scarce,  one  fire  a  day  being  built,  and  the  hearth  left  to  radiate  heat  the  re- 
mainder of  the  time.  From  this  grew  the  stove.  Toward  it  was  moved  the 
seat  of  honor — for  even  as  to-day,  honor  in  the  home  spelled  comfort. 

With  the  subdivision  of  the  one  large  room  came  the  necessity  for 
smaller  movable  furniture,  the  type  of  to-day.  Ornaments  grew  from  the 
bow  and  arrow  and  spear  and  the  trophies  of  the  chase  to  things  of  utility 
and  decoration.  Business  customs  required  a  knowledge  of  the  time,  and 
thus  came  into  use  the  hour-glass,  and  then  the  clock. 

Although  in  such  limited  space  only  a  few  of  the  simplest  facts  of  the 
development  of  the  house  can  be  touched  upon,  it  is  evident  what  romance 
lies  behind  us  and  how  custom  has  been  fashioning  through  numberless  cen- 


Foreword 

turies  the  house  not  made  with  hands.  But  the  work  has  not  ceased,  and,  as 
customs  change,  so  will  the  house.  One  can  only  conjecture  what  the  house 
of  to-morrow  will  be.  We  have  not  yet  completely  solved  the  problem  of 
dust,  nor  do  many  houses  have  elevators  that  eliminate  the  wearying  climb 
of  the  stairs.  Democratic  customs  becoming  more  widespread  have  made 
the  sen-ant  question  threaten  the  feasibility  of  a  separate  kitchen  for  each 
house.  Heating  facilities  have  also  not  reached  the  state  of  blissful  perfec- 
tion. The  apartment  house  has  done  much  to  eradicate  some  inefficient  and 
uneconomical  evils,  but  it  has  lost,  in  the  process,  much  of  the  old  charm  of 
the  separate  house.  Nor  can  the  time  ever  come  when  men  will  be  content 
to  have  their  home  lives  completely  regulated  by  machinery  or  guided  by  com- 
munity regulations. 

The  house  not  made  with  hands  is  not  alone  the  product  of  people's 
customs,  but  of  an  owner's  individuality.  Each  man  builds  his  own  house 
unseen,  a  house  of  sturdy  walls  not  made  of  brick,  roofed  in  with  things 
other  than  slate  or  tin,  windows  fashioned  of  more  than  wood  or  metal 
and  glass,  and  rooms  made  habitable  with  furniture  no  artist  can  create. 
For  to  each  house  made  with  hands  is  one  made  not  with  hands.  You  can 
see  it  —  if  you  have  the  vision  of  the  intangible. 

This  volume,  then,  is  for  the  man  with  that  vision  and  with  the  mod- 
erate purse  who  wants  a  comfortable  house  in  which  he  can  carry  out  his  own 
notions  of  good  taste  in  decoration  and  sanity  in  living.  In  gathering  the 
illustrations,  an  effort  was  made  to  present  examples  of  houses  that  cost 
in  the  neighborhood  of  $10,000  and  under.  These  figures  may  be  mislead- 
ing. Alany  factors  can  cause  such  totals  to  fluctuate.  Thus  an  item  of 
appreciable  value  is  architectural  detail.  If  you  like  a  type  of  house  shown 
here,  but  would  not  care  for  it  in  its  entirety,  the  dift'erence  would  reduce 
the  cost  appreciably.  Another  factor  is  that  the  costs  of  materials  and  labor 
differ  with  dift'erent  localities.  The  house  that  costs  $10,000  in  New  Eng- 
land will  cost  correspondingly  less  in  the  South.  The  greatest  factor  of  all 
in  reducing  the  cost  of  a  house,  however,  is  simplicity.  Insist  on  simple 
direct  plans  that  will  serve  the  needs  of  a  small  family.  The  interior 
decoration  and  the  planting  of  the  grounds  can  be  worked  up  as  the  building 
nears  completion  or  as  the  purse  permits.  Starting  with  simplicity  any 
amount  of  elaboration  may  be  developed.  It  is  indicative  of  the  trend  of 
American  life  that  an  inherent  desire  to  live  simply  has  brought  about  a 
demand  for  simple  homey  houses,  such  as  showm  in  this  book.  The  low  cost 
suburban  home  is  a  symbol  of  present-day  America.  It  is  a  house  made 
with  hands  fitting  to  enshrine  the  house  not  made  with  hands. 

R.  W. 


LOW  COST   SUBURBAN    HOMES 


THE    SERVICE    OF   THE    ARCHITECT 

THERE  seems  to  be  a  vague  idea  in  the  minds  of  many  people  as 
to  the  real  functions  of  the  architect,  and  exactly  what  service  he 
renders  in  return  for  his  fee.  What  he  does  in  connection  with  the 
designing  of  a  building  is  generally  understood.  It  is  common  knowledge 
that  in  his  preparation  for  the  profession  he  trains  his  artistic  talent  to  a 
high  appreciation  of  form  and  proportion,  makes  an  exhaustive  study  of 


A  Colonial  house  of  this  sort  is  siiitahle  to  most  of  our  muUeni  suliuri)s.     Situation  and 
house  alike  simulate  the  appearance  of  the  Colonial  village 

I 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


3 


the  architecture  of  the  ages  and  masters  the  technique  of  mechanical  draw- 
ing; that  it  is  his  duty  to  translate  into  the  design  of  the  building  his  best 
appreciation  of  the  individuality  of  the  owner  and  cause  it  to  represent 
truly  in  form  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  to  be  used.  But  few  people  with- 
out building  experience  realize  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  work  aside 
from  the  matter  of  design  that  the  architect  undertakes  in  connection 
with  the  administration  and  supervision  of  the  building  operation  and  how 
it  is  possible  for  him  to  effect  an  actual  saving  of  his  client's  funds  if  his 
work  in  this  department  is  successful. 

In    his    initial    interviews    with    prospective    clients   he    often    encounters 


The  house  as  the  owner  generally  gets  it  from  the  architect's  iiaiids  ;  planting  to  be 
finished  according  to  personal  tastes 


most  interesting  situations  on  this  account  and  is  obliged  to  correct  many 
strange  misconceptions  in  regard  to  his  work  and  methods.  For  example, 
the  proprietor  of  a  public  garage  in  a  thriving  New  York  suburb  who  is 
contemplating  an  addition  to  his  building  to  double  its  capacity  says,  "  The 
new  building  will  be  nothing  more  than  four  walls  and  a  roof,  and  I  would 
hardly  need  an  architect  for  that."  A  young  matron  about  to  establish  her 
homestead  says,  "  I  could  have  my  house  built  frmn  this  ])lan  I  cut  out 
of  the  magazine.  It  is  almost  exactly  what  I  want  and  I  would  not  bother 
With  an  architect ;  but  I  want  some  changes  in  the  rooms  and  I  do  not 
quite  like  the  exterior."  A  leading  Fifth  Avenue  tailor  who  has  decided 
to  build  a  home  in  a  suburb  says,  "  T  know  all  about  building.     Xo  con- 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Ayi)uir  Liiibmy  11,  d)\liiU\t 

Stucco  is  being  used  more  and  more  for  various  types  of  homes.     Here  its  surface  is 
made  more  interesting  by  judicious  use  of  lattice 

tractor  can  get  the  better  of  me.  All  I  want  is  a  set  of  plans  and  specifica- 
tions and  I  can  take  care  of  the  rest.  Now  show  me  the  best  house  I  can 
build  for  $12,000."  Cases  like  these  come  every  day  to  the  architect  deal- 
ing with  prospective  builders,  and  their  frequence  would  seem  to  justify 
a  brief  explanation  of  architectural  service  in  accordance  with  customary 
practise. 

In  the  ordinary  job  there  are  three  distinct  divisions  of  the  architect's 
work.  These  are:  (i)  the  design,  (2)  the  working  drawings,  specifica- 
tions and  details,  and  (3)  the  administration  and  supervision  of  construc- 
tion. 

The  design  is  embodied  in  what  are  usually  termed  "preliminary  sketches,'' 
which  show  the  general  plan  of  the  interior  and  the  form  of  the  exterior. 
These  are  drawn  to  scale,  but  are  not  made  in  sufficient  detail  and  with 
the  accuracy  necessary  in  actual  working  drawings.  In  these  sketches  the 
architect  works  out  in  definite  form  his  solution  of  the  problem  based  on 
the  suggestions  and  requirements  of  the  client.  They  constitute  the  medium 
through  which  a  definite  understanding  is  obtained  of  the  size,  design  and 
cost  of  the  proposed  building.  Here  his  artistic  talent  is  brought  into 
play  and  his  ability  as  a  designer  is  determined. 

Before  attem])ting  this  work  he  studies  all  those  characteristics  of  his 
client  that  he  can  discover  having  a  bearing  on  the  client's  home  life.  In 
this  he  must  consider  the  whole  family  as  a  unit  rather  than  the  individual. 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes  5 

if  the  house  is  to  be  equally  successful  for  all.  lu  the  preliminary  inter- 
views he  is  ever  alert  for  indications  of  taste  and  preference  for  special 
features.  He  will  go  over  carefully  with  the  client  plans  of  a  number  of 
houses  he  has  built  and  discuss  the  relative  cost  and  desirability  of  various 
building  materials.  He  is  glad  to  see  photographs  of  other  houses  that 
strike  the  client's  fancy,  as  these  assist  him  in  determining  just  what  is 
desired.  A  study  of  the  proposed  site  is  also  necessary  in  order  to  design 
the  building  to  harmonize  with  its  surroundings. 

H  the  preliminar)^  sketches  as  submitted  are  not  entirely  satisfactory 
they  are  changed  or  re-drawn  until  they  represent  exactly  what  the  client 
wants  and  are  acceptable  in  every  respect.  When  these  sketches  are  ap- 
proved the  first  step  is  completed. 

The  next  step  is  to  prepare  the  working  drawings,  or  plans,  and  write 
the  specifications.  The  plans  show  the  form  and  size  of  every  part  of  the 
building.  They  require  very  careful  and  accurate  work  and  are  usually 
made  by  draftsmen  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  architect.  Every 
detail  is  worked  out  precisely  to  scale  and  leaves  no  feature  to  the  dis- 
cretion of  a  workman.  All  questions  of  engineering,  such  as  bearing 
strength  of  beams  and  columns,  the  relation  between  roof  pitch  and  the 
roofing  materials  to  be  used,  proper  layout  of  heating  plant,  plumbing, 
lighting  and  structural  ventilation,  all  these  problems  must  be  considered  and 
wiselv  cared  for. 


Hays  and  Hoadlcy,  architects 

The  use  of  clapboard  here  follows  the  old  precedent.     Clapboards  are  especially  fitted 
for  Colonial  designs  such  as  this 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban   IIouics 


tfl        r- 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


7 


The  specifications  designate  the  exact  kind  and  quahty  of  every  material 
to  be  used  and  cover  all  details  relative  to  the  method  of  construction  and 
progress  of  the  work.  They  constitute  the  most  important  part  of  the  con- 
tract with  the  builder.  The  judgment  and  experience  of  the  architect 
is  tested  to  the  fullest  extent  in  writing  the  specifications.  In  this  alone 
he  can  often  save  the  client  many  times  the  amount  of  his  fee.  The  most 
appropriate  material  must  be  selected  in  each  case,  not  so  good  as  to  cause 
needless  extravagance  nor  so  poor  as  to  bring  after  regrets  that  too  great 


This  adaptation  of  the  hah'-timbered  English  cottage  apphed  to  an  American  suburb, 
shows  in  its  lack  of  planting  the  necessity  for  vines  and  shrubbery  around  such  a 
type  of  house.     The  English  style  of  house  requires  privacy. 


economy  was  exercised.  The  specifications  must  be  complete  to  the  last 
detail  and  cover  every  feature  of  the  work,  for  two  important  reasons. 
The  first  is  that  the  builder  is  thus  enabled  to  figure  very  precisely  the 
actual  cost  of  the  work.  Nothing  is  left  to  his  judgment  or  imagination 
and  he  is  not  obliged  to  allovv-  a  margin  for  contingencies.  He  can,  there- 
fore, estimate  closely  and  make  the  lowest  possible  bid  for  the  work.  The 
second  reason  is  that  complete  specifications  which  anticipate  and  fully 
cover  every  feature  of  the  construction  work  entirely  eliminate  all  extra 
charges.  This  enables  the  owner  to  place  a  definite  limit  on  the  cost,  plan 
up  to  this  limit  and  be  assured  that  the  amount  of  the  contractor's  bid  will 
cover    his    entire    expenditure.     To    accomplish    this    recjuires    most    pains- 


8 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


J.   Lovell  Little,   Jr. 


This   suburban   residence   shows  the  adaptability  of  fireproof  construction   to   houses 
somewhat  along  the   English   stjde 


taking  work  on  the  part  of  the  architect,  but  the  result  is  sure  to  be  of 
financial  benefit  to  the  client  and  save  him  much  annoyance. 

With  the  plans  and  specifications  completed  the  architect  takes  up  the 
third  feature  of  his  work,  the  administration  and  supervision  of  construc- 
tion. He  proceeds  to  obtain  from  builders  bids  for  the  work.  He  sup- 
plies blue  prints  of  the  plans  and  copies  of  the  specifications  for  this  pur- 
pose and  his  oftice  is  used  as  headquarters.  His  judgment  and  experience 
are  again  of  value  to  the  client  in  selecting  the  contractor  to  whom  the 
work  is  to  be  entrusted.  The  integrity,  financial  responsibility,  methods, 
promptness,  efficiency  and  general  reputation  of  the  various  bidders  are 
known  to  the  architect  and  his  advice  in  this  matter  is  sure  to  be  of  value. 
It  is  frequently  wise  to  give  the  job  on  a  higher  bid  than  the  lowest  when 
the  qualifications  of  the  bidders  are  considered. 

\Mien  the  successful  bidder  is  determined  the  architect  acts  as  counsel 
for  the  owner  and  draws  up  all  contracts  between  tlie  owner  and  the 
Ijuilder.  He  is  familiar  with  all  points  of  law  that  apply  to  such  contracts 
and  no  further  legal  advice  is  necessary  for  the  owner  to  enjoy  full  pro- 
tection of  his  interests. 

Before  excavation  is  begun  it  is  customary  for  the  architect  to  stake  out 
the  exact  site  of  the  building,  taking  advantage  of  the  most  favorable  situa- 
tion, witli  full  consideration  of  the  natural  grades,  so  that  best  landscape 
efifect  will  be  secured  and  the  least  possible  amount  of  special  grading  will 
be  necessary.     Tn  country  and  suburban  residence  work   this   is  usually  a 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes  9 

problem  of  considerable  importance  and  one  in  wbich  the  experience  and 
technical  knowledge  of  the  architect  should  always  be  consulted. 

During  the  progress  of  construction  th.e  architect  or  his  expert  superin- 
tendent visits  the  job  from  time  to  time  to  see  that  all  materials  used  are 
of  the  quality  specified  and  every  part  is  properly  constructed.  As  the 
contract  with  the  Ixiilder  provides  that  no  part  of  the  work  \\\\\  be  paid  for 
until  the  architect  has  certified  that  it  is  O.  K.  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
architect's  judgment  is  final  and  his  authority  absolute.  Since  his  own 
reputation  as  well  as  the  interests  of  the  client  is  at  stake  he  will  not 
hesitate  to  reject  any  work  that  is  not  fully  up  to  standard. 

The  advantage  of  this  system  for  the  protection  of  the  client  will  be  at 
once  apparent.  The  builder  must  not  only  produce  work  that  will  satisfy 
his  own  conscience  but  every  part  must  be  finished  up  to  a  standard  that 
will  be  satisfactory  to  the  architect,  who  has  full  technical  knowledge  as 
to  what  it  should  be  and  also  a  double  incentive  to  reject  it  if  it  is  inferior 
in  any  respect. 

Howard  Ham  mitt. 


Frank    A.    Bourne,    architect 

The  sweep  of  the  roof  gives  this  small  stucco  farmhouse  a  distingush- 
ing  mark  of  indivichiality 


lO 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


L.  H.   Blcy,   arclulcct 

A  house  designed  along  simple  lines,  the  broad  sweep  of  the  stained  shingle  roof  being 
especially  in  keeping  with  the  attractive  character   of   the   surroundings 


The  screened  porches  add  materially  to 
the  living  space  on  the  first  floor 


The  stairs  are  admirably  planned  to  en- 
croach but  little  on  the  room  space 


HOW  TO  GO  ABOUT  PLANNING 
YOUR  HO  M  E 

THERE  are  no  hard-and-fast  rules  to  govern  the  planning  of  a 
house ;  personal  habits  and  ideas  are  all-important  factors ;  what 
might  be  inadequate  for  one,  might  be  perfectly  satisfactory  to 
to  another.  In  your  contemplated  house  you  likely  have  pondered  over 
and  considered  that  certain  requirements  are  essential.  Try  to  formulate 
and  express  these  ideas  in  such  a  manner  as  to  obtain  an  intelligent  compre- 


■up] 


jd 


111  11  p^ 


^-JR5T  neon  FLAN 


jood  example  of  a  "  large-small  "  house  with  three  bedrooms  and  a  batii,  having  a 
center  hall,  a  pantry  available  to  hall  and  dining-room,  and  a  wing  containing 
kitchen  and  pantry.  All  bedrooms  are  convenient  to  the  hall,  and  there  is  a  room 
for  use  as  either  a  study  or  a  dressing-room.  The  rear  chimney  could  be  elim- 
inated if  a  gas  range  were  used  in  lieu  of  the  coal  range,  hot  water  coming  from 
a  generator  located  in  basement. 


hension  of  how  they  will  fit  together ;  in  other  words  "live  in  the  plan"  before 
it  is  caused  to  exist  in  material. 

With  simple  lines,  as  suggested  in  the  accompanying  cuts,  sketch  out  your 
ideal  plan,  correcting  it  until  it  typifies  every  required  convenience  adapted 
to  every-day  use  for  all  those  who  have  anything  to  do  with  the  house,  so 
that  owners,  guests,  servants  and  trades-people  shall  find  what  they  want 
without  too  many  steps,  trouble  or  conflict  in  the  working  of  general  house- 

II 


12 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


PLANS  OF  TWO  BEDROO^I  HOUSES 

(i)    One  chimney  for  heater,  fireplace  and   range;   bathroom  over  kitchen  affording 
plumbing  economy 

(2)  Narrow  house,  with  pantry  and  a  rear  kitchen 

(3)  One  chimney  for  two  fireplaces,  range  and  heater,  second-floor  sleeping  porch 

(4)  Wide  house,  with  sleeping  porch,  available  to  both  second-floor  bedrooms 

(5)  Extreme  hall  space  economy,  also  a  one-chimney  type 

(6)  Stair  hall  and  bathroom  located  for  economical  plumbing. 


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PLANS  OF  THREE  BEDROOM  llOL-Sl-S 

(i)  A  one-chimney  plan,  rear  pantry  and  bathroom  over  kitchen 

(2)  Front  and  side  porches,  living-room  across  house,  pantry  and  rear  ktichen 

(3)  A  narrow  front,  with  vestibule  entrance,  laundry  adjoining  k-tichen,  second  floor 

has  one  private  and  one  conunon  bathroom,  also  a  front  dressing-room 

(4)  Stair  hall,  one-chimney  feature  and  incorporates  a  back  staircase 

(5)  Pantry  between  stair  hall  and  kitchen,  separate  stairs  to  third  floor 

(6)  Hall  space  economy  and  all  appointments  direct  and  compact. 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


13 


hold  machinery.  Study  over  these  plans ;  various  features  are  typified  and 
can  readily  be  reasoned  out,  thus  avoiding  the  impossible  and  impractical. 
Consider  the  diverse  points  between  which  the  most  traveling  is  done ;  bring 
them  together  without  conflicting,  so  that  you  get  directness,  with  each  room 
in  natural  relation  to  the  other,  with  the  object  of  avoiding  passing  through 
one  room  to  reach  another.  Provide  for  direct  but  independent  means  of 
communication  between  kitchen  and  front  door ;  if  possible  the  pantry  or  a 
lobby  should  intervene,  in  order  to  effect  privacy  and  the  prevention  of 
kitchen  odors  permeating  the  house. 

Avoid  irregularities   in  floor  levels,  the  confusion  as  to  the  "  hand  "  of 


FIE5T  FLCCa 


ETOND  FLOOB 


A  typical  example  of  a  small,  one-chimney,  four-bedroom  house  with  bath.  It  provides 
a  front  porch  with  side  terraces,  stair  hall,  large  living-room  with  fireplace  in  an 
ingle  nook.  The  kitchen  is  isolated  from  the  house  proper  by  means  of  two  doors, 
thus  also  permitting  the  owner  to  go  to  cellar  without  going  through  kitchen. 
The  want  of  a  pantry  backstairs  and  a  laundry  is  to  be  noted,  but  the  generous- 
sized  bedrooms,  with  closet  space  and  admirable  main  stair  location,  is  considered 
a  compensation. 


doors  when  hung  (that  is,  whether  they  should  open  right  or  left  to  avoid 
interfering  with  closet  doors  or  projections),  introduction  of  windows  in 
staircases,  any  chimney  not  being  perpendicularly  continuous  from  its  foun- 
dation and  inconsistent  in  its  location  to  provide  for  heater,  range  and 
fireplace  flues. 

Place  the  main  stairway  in  the  most  advantageous  position,  consider  its 
accessibility,  its  ventilation-affording  possibilities,  the  head  room  under  the 
floor  construction,  provisions  for  a  turning  space  on  landings,  also  easy  step 
risers  and  generous  treads. 

Express  your  desire  for  an  outside  cellarway,  the  rear  or  other  porch,  the 
outside  toilet,  facilities  for  introducing  ice  to  a  refrigerator  either  from  out- 


14 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


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Lozi'  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


15 


side  or  so  located  as  to  eliminate  the  necessity  for  a  journev  with  dripping 
ice  throngh  the  kitchen  or  other  apartment. 

Plan  to  be  orderly  in  arrangement,  consider  convenience  of,  position  for, 
and  light  on  sink,  range  and  laundry  tubs.  Locate  your  kitchen  or  other 
dresser,  cold  room,  grocery  closet,  your  exterior  wash-paves  and  hydrants. 

The  importance  of  the  veranda  or  porch  should  not  be  lost  sight  of ;  it 
should  be  of  a  generous  width  and  judiciously  roofed  so  as  not  to  darken, 
too  much,  the  rooms  upon  which  it  encroaches,  as  it  is  easier  to  shut  out 
the  light  than  to  let  it  in. 


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C"AMBEe     1  "'■^^         1      i        CHAM  BEE     f 


•FIE3T  FLOOE 


•  SECOMD  FLOOE- 

Many  square  feet  of  house  area  can  be  saved  by  means  of  a  plan  having  the  staircase 
in  a  semi-center  hall ;  causing  independent  backstairs  to  be  immediately  available 
from  the  service  portion  of  the  house.  This  type  of  plan  has  many  other  eco- 
nomical features,  bathroom  over  pantry  and  in  close  proximity  to  hot-water 
source,  permanent  refrigerator  location  opening  on  a  rear  porch,  outside  cellar- 
way,  a  sewing  nook  in  second  floor,  hall  and  bedrooms  of  generous  proportions 
and  very  accessible  to  the  hall. 


Consider  exposure  to  sun  or  light,  direction  of  prevailing  breezes  and  the 
general  outlook  or  prospect  from  the  house ;  the  type  of  artificial  light  and 
heating,  keeping  in  mind  location  and  height  of  outlets  and  radiators  for 
etl'ectiveness  and  furnishing.  Realize  that  plumbing  economy  is  dependent 
on  the  close  proximity  and  directness  of  supply  and  soil  pipes,  therefore 
endeavor  to  group  fixtures  on  each  floor,  as  near  overhead  as  possible. 

Endeavor  to  avoid  breaks  or  offsets  in  wall  and  ceiling  surfaces,  crannies, 
niches  and  nooks ;  either  deliberately  convert  them  into  closets  or  promptly 
reconstruct  your  plan  study.  Make  a  serious  efifort  to  keep  to  main  or 
so-called  "  bearing  "  partitions  for  the  various  floors  over  each  other,  even  to 
and  through  the  top  floor  or  loft,  to  act  as  roof  supports  and  stabilize 
the  house. 

When  the  bodv  of  a  house  is  being  planned  for  a  specific  exterior  outline, 
it  is  good  practise  to  extend  a  wing  to  accommodate  the  first  floor  service 
requirements,  such  as  pantry,  kitchen,  laundry  and  rear  stairs  and  perhaps 


i6 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


servants'  quarters  in  the  second  tloor,  but  isolated  from  the  main  portion  of 
the  house  by  means  of  a  passage  door  from  rear  hall.  It  is  important  to 
give  consideration  in  the  plan  to  type  of  water  supply  —  whether  an  attic  or  a 
basement  tank  is  to  be  provided  for. 


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PLANS  OF  FOUR  BEDROOM  HOUSES 

(i)   One-chimney  type,  with  stair  hall  and  bathroom  over  kitchen 

(2)  Introduces   a   library,   with   small   hall   separating  kitchen   from   living-rooms,  the 

bath  located  for  convenient  plumbing,  the  dressing-room  a  desirable  feature 

(3)  Large    living-room,    hall    space    economy,    a    sleeping    porch    available    from    botli 

front  bedrooms 

(4)  A  returned  porch,  stair  hall  and  a  back  staircase 

(5)  P>ont  and   side   porches,   pantry   separating  kitchen    from   hall   and   dining-room, 

a  private  bath  accessible  from  two  bedrooms 

(6)  Hall  with  fireplace  in  an  "  ingle  nook,"  a  lil)rary,  backstairs,  small  second  floor 

hall  with  all  rooms  instantly  available. 

Now  comes  a  need  to  think  out  the  location  of  the  house  heater,  whether 
hot  air,  steam,  vacuum  or  hot  water.  The  coal  bins,  a  jelly  closet,  provision 
room,  wood  storage,  location  for  vacuum  cleaning  apparatus,  an  individual 
lighting  plant  of  acetylene,  gas  or  electricity,  must  be  considered.     Keep  in 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


17 


mind  the  need  and  location  for  outbuildings,  the  garden,  gateways,  walks, 
drives,  terraces  and  hedges  or  fences  with  relation  to  existing  streets  and 
adjoining  properties. 


PLANS  OF  BUNGALOWS 

(i)  Front  porch,  large  living-room,  two  bedrooms  with  bath;  (2)  one  bedroom, 
pantry  and  large  living-room;  (3)  one-chimnej'  feature,  three  bedrooms  and 
bathroom  off  of  an  isolated  hall;  (4)  two  bedrooms  separated  by  the  bathroom, 
also  the  one-chimney  feature;  (5)  two  bedrooms,  the  living-room  a  combination 
dining-room;  (6)  pantry  separating  dining-room,  two  bedrooms,  with  bathroom 
directly  available ;  (7)  center  kitchen  with  side  porch,  pantry,  three  bedrooms,  bath. 
stairs  to  cellar;  (8)  corner  porch,  stairs  to  attic  and  basement,  two  bedrooms  and 
bath ;  (9)  returned  porch,  three  bedrooms  and  bath ;  ( 10)  wide  living-room,  hall  to 
two  bedrooms  and  bath,  stairs  to  cellar;  (11)  wide  type  with  front  dining-room  and 
two  bedrooms  separated  by  bathroom;  (12)  vestibule  entrance,  three  bedrooms 
and  bath. 

Give  close  and  serious  application  along  these  suggested  lines  and  you  will 
be  enabled  to  scheme  out  a  plan  which  should  show  no  effort  to  make  itself 
interesting  when  developed  by  the  architect.  But  always  keep  in  mind  your 
family  needs  and  peculiar  requirements ;  for  instance,  what  you  intend  to  do 


i8 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


in  the  way  of  entertaining,  your  chief  desiderata  in  the  way  of  closet  space, 
built-in  conveniences,  etc. 

The  difference  between  the  attractive  house  and  the  house  that  is  dis- 
pleasing comes  in  the  variation  of  its  shape,  form,  or  outline,  all  dependent 
on  its  plan  arrangement ;  many  of  the  annoyances  that  attend  house  planning 
and  building  would  be  avoided  if  the  knowledge  acquired  during  the  process 
had  been  possessed  in  the  beginning.  The  plan  is  nothing  if  not  compact ; 
its  cff'ectiveness  is  dependent  largely  upon  its  consistency  with  requirements 


Caretto    and    Forster,    archilccls 

The  three  mediums  used  in  this  liuuse— brick,  stucco  and  half -timber— give  it  abundant 
interest.     The  rolling  roof  lines  have  added  variety 

of  directness,  with  the  axis  admirably  precise;  it  should  be  developed  and 
wrought  with  such  care  that,  when  constructed,  its  occupants  may  enjoy 
to  the  utmost  its  advantages  and  domestic  atmospiicre. 

After  your  typical  plan  has  been  evolved  in  this  manner  you  can  fit  pieces 
of  paper,  cut  to  a  scale  representing  the  actual  size  of  your  furniture,  and  in 
reality  furnish  each  room  in  your  house-to-be ;  note  the  space  between  the 
various  pieces,  so  that  the  working  facilities  of  each  room  can  be  realized 
as  ample  and  practical.  In  this  way  you  can  get  an  idea  of  how  your  house 
will  appear  when  you  are  once  in  it. 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


19 


If  the  reader  bears  in  mind  that  not  only  are  extra  angles  nnpleasant  in  a 
house,  but  that  they  add  to  the  cost  and  that  as  regards  wall  space  the  more 
nearly  a  house  approximates  a  square  or  rectangle  and  does  away  with 
exterior  angles  that  his  house  will  be  more  economical. 

You  should  now  be  prepared  with  a  plan  study  expressing  all  desires, 
fortified  with  notes  on  the  site  for  house,  its  environment,  required  appoint- 
ments, character  of  materials  of  construction  and  finish  so  as  to  enable  your 
selected  architect  to  develop  the  exterior,  modifying  the  plan  requirements 
to  the  design.  Now  comes  the  preparing  of  practical  working  drawings, 
details  and  specifications,  in  which  the  material  and  construction  will  be 
intelligently  specified,  thus  enabling  and  ensuring  the  receipt  of  competitive 
estimates  from  general  contractors,  all  figuring  on  a  standard  basis. 

Under  no  circumstances  should  a  man  of  any  other  vocation  be  his  own 
architect ;  there  are  too  many  pitfalls  and  thousands  of  costly  examples,  also 
sad  experiences,  which  the  layman  has  suffered ;  expensive  changes  and 
extras  avoided  will  be  more  costly  than  the  fee  of  a  professional  adviser. 

Study  the  plans  illustrated ;  they  will  not  only  bring  out  the  desirable  points 
of  planning  but  will  give  new  ideas  of  plan  variation. 

C.   E.    ScriERMERIIORX. 


/.    Lovcll   Little,   Jr.,   iircln:cct 

Roomy,  comfortalile.  yet  moderate  in  cost,  this  stucco 
house  shows  the  advantage  of  Iniihling  the  proper 
type  of  house  for  the  setting 


20 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


THE      COST     OF     DIFFERENT     KINDS 
OF     BUILDING 

THERE  was  a  time  in  this  big,  new  country  of  ours  when  the  forests 
were  a  bugbear  to  the  scattered  inhabitants  and  a  great  hindrance 
to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  The  cry  was,  "  Cut  the  trees  down 
and  burn  them  up  to  get  them  out  of  the  way  as  soon  as  possible."  In  the 
country  districts  of  to-day  there  is  the  same  disregard  of  the  forests,  and 
the  government  has  had  much  dif^culty  in  arousing  any  sentiment  for  the 
conservation   of   our  timber.     At   that   time   lumber   was   very   cheap,    and 


/irT/c  rim  fi/i/v 


Si^COAB  nOO/^FLA/V 


/!iA'i.yc  toon 


\l±^ 


-p^J^^ 


Plans   of   the   house   shown   opposite   indicate   the   simplicity   of   interior   arrangement 
which  made  the  house  a  success 

21 


22 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


houses  could  be  built  very  quickly  with  little  expense.  They  were  scattered, 
and  there  was  less  danger  from  fire.  If  a  house  burned  down,  one  had 
merely  to  step  into  one's  back  yard  for  new  material.  To-day,  with  all  the 
changed  conditions,  lumber  is  high,  and  we  are  slowly  learning  to  conserve 
our  forests  for  use  wdiere  no  other  material  will  answer,  and  to  look  for  a 
safer  and  more  permanent  material  for  exterior  construction.  We  are  fast 
becoming  an  old  world  and  must  adopt  the  customs  of  the  old  worlds. 
There,  the  more  permanent  materials  have  been  long  in  use,  and  there  it  has 
been  often  found  that  a  well-constructed  tile  roof  is  in  perfect  condition 
after  three  hundred  years,  when  the  wooden  shell  underneath  is  crumbling 
away.  Our  white  pine  trees,  once  so  numerous,  are  now  few,  and  white  pine 
lumber  is  very  much  increased  in  cost.     Fortunately  to  take  its  place  other 


The  first  floor  plan   of   house   No.  2    (see  page  24)    is  more  elaborate  than  that  of 
house  No.  I,  and  its  contents  is  more  by  50,000  cubic  feet 

materials  are  at  hand.  Bricks  are  easily  made  and  Portland  cement  is  far 
cheaper  than  it  used  to  be,  so  that  now,  when  a  man  wants  to  build  a  house 
for  himself,  let  him  first  choose  an  architect  who  understands  the  relative 
cost  of  materials,  and  who  will  plan  a  simple,  dignified  house,  with  few 
angles,  that  will  be  of  the  least  expense  to  take  care  of  as  the  years  go  by, 
and  one  that  will  not  be  a  menace,  but  rather  a  permanent,  artistic  addition 
to  his  surroundings.  If  such  buildings  are  in  favor,  our  travelers  on  their 
return  from  Europe  will  not  feel  that  many  of  our  city  districts  are  in  com- 
parison dilapidated  or  unsightly. 

Simplicity  in  plan  (that  is,  a  house  of  oblong  dimensions  without  too  many 
angles  and  corners)  not  only  gives  a  more  artistic  and  dignified  result,  but 
at  the  same  time  simplifies  the  cost,  and  a  house  so  constructed  in  more 
permanent  materials,  as  against  a  more  complicated  design  in  wood,  would 
give  the  balance  in  favor  of  the  simpler  and  more  permanent  construction. 

The  first  thing  a  house  builder  should  do  is  to  select  a  good  architect  — 
one  w-ho  is  familiar  with  the  better  and  more  permanent  types  of  construc- 
tion—  and  not  stint  him  too  much  on  the  cost  of  the  exterior  of  the  building. 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


23 


It  would  be  better  to  give  up  some  elaborate  interior  effect  or  mahogany 
finish  for  a  more  permanent  exterior.  Once  have  a  good  shell  on  the  outside 
walls  and  what  is  saved  on  repairs  can  be  put  aside  for  the  expense  of  making 
over  the  room  later  on,  or  for  more  elaborate  decoration  of  the  interior. 

There  are  various  types  of  good  wall  construction  that  a  house  builder 
should  consider,  namely : 

( 1 )  Brick  —  a  good  red  water-struck  or  the  so-called  tapestry  bricks.  A 
brick  house  for  its  most  artistic  results  should  always  verge  on  the  red 
shades,  the  darker  the  better,  and  never  on  the  yellows.  White  or  light 
joints  and  wide  joints  give  more  character  to  a  red  brick  structure. 

(2)  A  frame  house  with  brick  veneer  makes  a  cheaper  substitute  for 
brick,  but  only  bas  one  merit  —  that  it  is  better  than  either  clapboards  or 
shingles,  both  in  qualities  of  fire  resistance  and  of  permanence. 


5r<uv^-ri-.ooRji*Lv^ 


The  second  floor  plan  of  house  No.  2,  showing  its  larger  scale, 
much  greater  than  house  No.   i 


Yet  its  cost  was  not 


(3)  Fireproof  terra  cotta  blocks,  of  which  there  are  several  on  the  market, 
finished  on  the  outside  with  cement  stucco,  give  a  very  permanent  and 
artistic  building.  The  stucco  should  never  be  the  natural  cement  color,  but 
either  white  cement,  light  grays,  or  light  yellows. 

(4)  A  cheaper  and  good  effect  may  be  obtained  with  wood  construction 
and  wire  lathing  and  stucco,  but  the  advantage  is  very  little  in  its  favor  when 
one  considers  durability  and  fireproof  qualities. 

The  roofs  should  be  preferably  tile  construction  or  slate.  On  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  roof  depends  also  the  economy  of  construction  as  well  as  the 
dignity  of  appearance. 

To  illustrate  the  above  points  more  clearly,  three  houses  which  were 
actually  built  and  whose  plans  and  exteriors  are  here  given  were  taken  and 
the  costs  estimated,  exclusive  of  heating,  plumbing,  electric  work,  interior 
decorations,  and  lighting  fixtures,  because  the  interior  work  is  subject  to  a 
wide  variation  of  cost  according  to  the  design  and  materials  used,  kind  of 
heating,  and  number  of  plumbing  fixtures. 


24 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes  25 

Of  these  three  houses,  Putnam  &  Cox  were  the  architects  of  num])er  one, 
George  Hunt  Ingraham  of  number  two,  and  James  Purdon  of  numl)cr  three. 

House  number  one  is  built  of  terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed.  House  number 
two  is  built  of  wood  frame,  wire  lathed  and  stuccoed.  House  number  three 
is  built  of  brick. 

Table  Number  I  gives  the  cost  of  wood  construction. 

TABLE  I 

Wire  lath  Cypress  siding       Clapboards  Shingles 

and  stucco  (painted  white)  (painted  white)  (stained) 

No.  I $  S.ico.oo  $  7,800.00              $  7,800.00  $  7,875.00 

No.  2 16,970.00  16,400.00                16,500.00                16,200.00 

No.  3 19.685.co  19,625.00                19,625.00                19,625.00 

The  cost  per  cubic  foot  on  the  above  figures : 

No.  I,  34,089  cu.  ft.,  23c.  23c.  23c.  23c. 

No.  2,  84,837  cu.  ft.,  20c.  igc.  19c.  igc. 

No.  3,  72,380  cu.  ft.,  27c.  27c.  27c.  27c. 

Table  Number  H  gives  the  cost  if  built  of  brick  or  terra  cotta  blocks 
stuccoed. 

TABLE  II 

Brick  Stucco  on  Tile 

No.  I   $  8,820.00  $  8,580.00 

No.  2  17,125.00  17,465.00 

No.  3   21,780.00  20,900.00 

The  cost  per  cubic  foot  on  the  above  figures : 

No.  I,  34.089  cu.  ft 26c.  25c. 

No.  2,  84,837  cu.  ft 20c.  20I/2C. 

No.  3,  72,380  cu.  ft 30c.  29c. 

The  per  cent,  increase  in  cost  of  brick  construction  over  wood  and  over 
wire  lath  stuccoed  is,  respectively,  as  follows : 

No.  I  12.7170  8.89% 

No.  2  4-63%  .91% 

No.  3   10.987^  io.647r 

The  per  cent,  increase  in  cost  of  terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed  over  wood  and 
over  wire  lath  and  stucco  is,  respectively,  as  follows : 

No.  I  9-65%  5-937c 

No.  2  6.72%  2.92% 

No.  3  6.501^  6.17% 

The  types  of  wall  construction  for  the  three  houses  are  shown  above  in 
diagrams. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  insurance  rates  on  the  dififerent  t\pes  of  con- 
struction given  by  the  insurance  companies.     These  are  shown  by  Table  HI. 


26 


Lozv  Cost  Suhurban  Homes 


TABLE  III 

Cost 
Number  i —  for  5  Years 

Wood  construction   (wire  lathed   and   stuccoed)....     75c.  per  100 

Wood  construction   (siding,  clapboards,  shingles)...     75e.  per  100 

Brick     50c.  per  100 

Terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed 50c.  per  100 

Number  2 — 

Wood  construction   (wire,  lathed  and  stuccoed)....  75c.  per  100 

Wood  construction   (siding,  clapboards,  shingles)...  75c.  per  100 

Brick 50C.  per  100 

Terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed 50c.  per  100 


for 


Cost 

15  Years 

$182.25 

175-00 

132.50 

128.70 

375-82 
371-25 
256.87 
261.97 


James   Ftirdon,    architect 

House  No.  3  is  of  brick  construction  built  so  as  to  produce  the  best  fabric  effect 


Number  3 — 

Wood  construction  (wire   lathed   and   stuccoed)....  75c.  per  ico  442.91 

Wood  construction  (siding,  clapboards,  shingles).  ..  .  75c.  per  100  441.56 

Brick     50C.  per  100  326.70 

Terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed 50c.  jjor  100  3i3-50 

The  repairs  on  the  various  types  should  also  be  considered  in  estimating 
the  cost.  It  is  allowed  that  the  clapboard  finished  house  would  need  painting 
every  three  years,  after  the  first  three  years,  besides  general  repairs  to  outside 
woodwork.  Of  course,  where  cypress  shingles  are  used  and  where  some  of 
the  prepared  stains  are  employed,  the  longevity  of  the  woodwork  is  somewhat 
e.xtendcd.     The    replacing    of    shingle    roofs    has    not    been    considered    in 


Lozi'  Cost  Suburban  Homes  27 

making  out  Table   I\'.  which  is  given  to  show  all  other  repairs  that  are 
ordinarily  to  be  considered. 

TABLE  IV 

Average  Cost  per 

Year  for  Total  Cost 

Number  i —                                                                     Painting  and  Repairs  for  15  Years 

Wood  (wire  lathed  and  stuccoed) $  25.00*  $   375.00* 

Wood  (siding,  clapboards,  shingles) 750O  1,125.00 

Brick    25.00*  37500* 

Terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed 25.00*  3750o* 

Number  2 — 

Wood  (wire  lathed  and  stuccoed) 35.00*  525.00* 

Wood   (siding,  clapboards,  -hingles  I 100.00  T.500.00 


Brick    35  co^ 

Terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed 35-CO* 

Number  3 — 

Wood  (wire  lathed  and  stuccoed ) 35-0O* 

Wood    (siding,    clapboards,    shingles) 100,00 

Brick   35-00* 

Terra  cotta  blocks  stuccoed 35-0O* 


The  plans  of  house 
No.  3  show 
a  straightfor- 
ward arrange- 
ment of  rooms 
like  Xo.  2, 
but  somewhat 
simpler 

525.00* 
525.00* 


525.00* 
1,500.00 
525.00* 
525.00* 


*  These  figures  are  for  painting  and  repairs  on  exterior  woodwork  only.  Xo  attempt 
has  been  made  to  give  the  cost  for  upkeep  of  a  wire  lath  and  stucco  wall.  The  efficiency 
of  this  type  of  construction,  as  is  generally  recognized,  is  dependent  on  the  style  of 
house,  its  location  and  exposure,  quality  of  workmanship,  quality  of  materials  used, 
etc.  But  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  the  matter  of  durability  alone  it  will  not 
compare  with  a  wall  built  of  brick  or  one  built  of  terra-  cotta  blocks  and  stucco,  on 
either  of  which  types  the  cost  of  upkeep  would  be  ver>-  little,  not  only  for  15  years  but 
for   a  ver\-   much  longer  period. 


28  Lozij  Cost  Suburban  Homes 

The  comparative  costs  after  fifteen  years'  occupancy  are : 

TABLE  V 

Wood  (Siding,  Clapl)oards,  Shingles)  — 

Number  i             Number  2  Number  3 

Original  cost   $7,800.00              $16,400.00  $19,625.00 

Repairs  1. 125.00                   1,500.00  1,500.00 

Insurance     17500                     371-25  44io6 

Totals  $9,100.00              $18,271.25  $21,566.56 

Wood   (Wire  Lathed  and  Stuccoed)  — 

Original  cost   $8,100.00              $16,970.00  $19,685.00 

Repairs  .375-00                    525.00  52500 

Lisurance    182.25                      375-82  442.91 

Totals  $8,657.25              $17,870.82  $20,652.91 

Five  per  cent,  interest  on  difference  in  orig- 
inal cost  over  wood  construction        225.00                     427-50  45-00 

Total   $8,882.25               $18,298.32  $20,697-91 

Brick  Construction — 

Original  cost   $8,820.00              $17,125.00  $21,780.00 

Repairs    375-0O                    52500  525.00 

Lisurance  132.50                     256.87  326.70 

Total  $9,327.50              $17,906.87  $22,631.70 

Five  per  cent,  interest  on  difference  in  orig- 
inal cost  over  wood  construction        765.00                     543-75  1,616.25 

Total  $10,092.50              $18,45.0.62  $24,247.95 

Terra  Cotta  Blocks  Stuccoed — 

Original  cost    $8,580.00              $17,465.00  $20,900.00 

Repairs 375-00                    525-00  525.00 

Lisurance    128.70                     261.97  313-50 

Total  $9,083.70              $18,251.97  $21,738.50 

Five  per  cent,  interest  on  difference  in  orig- 
inal cost  over  wood  construction        585.00                    798.75  956.25 

Total  $9,668.70              $19,050.72  $22,694.75 

It  can  be  readily  seen  from  these  figures  that  the  more  permanent  building 
is  the  more  economical  in  the  end.  The  main  object  of  this  article  is  to 
make  the  prospective  housebuilder  feel  that  he  owes  it  to  himself,  and  also 

to  the  community  in  which  he  lives,  to  build  the  outside  of  his  dwelling  of  as 

l)ermanent  a  character  as  possible,  and  also  to  make  it  a  credit  to  his 
neighborhood. 

Let  us  hoj^e  that  the  i)lea  for  more  permanent  construction  has  not  been 
made  in  vain. 

There  is  still  a  word  to  be  said  in  regard  to  variation  in  Imilding  cost. 


Lozv  Cost  Siiburbaii  Homes 


2g 


Beside  the  plan,  the  location  influences  this  materially.  In  some  districts 
labor  is  high,  and  building  costs  consequently  high.  Transportation  figures 
in  also :  the  cost  of  carriage  into  some  localities  makes  it  prohibitive  to  use 
certain  foreign  building  materials.  The  safest  rule  is  that  one  of  common 
sense,  to  use  native  materials.  This  is  not  only  economy,  but  it  is  generally 
the  most  satisfactory  esthetically.  The  reason  figures  are  misleading  in  the 
building  magazines  is  due  to  these  ditTerences  in  construction  cost  owing  to 
localities.  A  short  time  ago  a  magazine  made  a  canvass  of  the  architects 
all  over  the  country  and  got  figures  for  the  construction  of  a  small  suburban 
house.  The  plans,  bill  of  materials  and  specification  of  this  house  were 
sent  to  architects  all  over  the  country.  The  following  variations  are  inter- 
esting to  study  in  this  connection.  In  Xew  York  City  and  vicinity,  where 
the  building  trades  are  most  strongly  organized,  the  cost  was  $4,300;  in 
Philadelphia  suburbs  it  was  from  ten  to  fifteen  per  cent,  cheaper ;  Maine. 
$3,400;  Southern  Xew  England,  a  little  in  excess  of  this;  the  Middle  South. 
Kentucky,  [Maryland,  etc..  $3,000;  Chicago,  $3,800;  the  ^^liddle  Western 
States,  such  as  Ohio.  ^Michigan  and  Iowa,  $2,550  to  $4,000;  Pacific  Coast 
Northwest,  $2,000  to  $3,200;  Colorado,  average  $3,100  to  $3,200:  Southwest 
(Arizona,  Xew  ^Mexico).  $2,800  to  $3,000.  Though  these  figures  do  not 
represent  the  most  careful  analysis  of  building  conditions,  they  are  a  fair 
indication  of  the  geographical  factor  in  cost. 

George  Htxt  Ixr.:iAH.\M. 


Mann  &  MacSeille,   architects 

An  English  half-timbered  cottage  type  that  fits  its  setting  well.  Com- 
pare this  with  the  unfinished  development  around  the  house  shown 
on  page  7 


30 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Diihring,    Okie    and    Zicglcr,    architects 


Among  the  finest  architectural  developments  in  America  has  been  the  treatment  of 
native  stone  in  houses  of  the  Pennsylvania  Colonial  and  farmhouse  types.  This 
detailed  view  shows  the  stone  rough-pointed  ami  wliitewasjicd 


THE    PROMISE    OF    AMERICAN    HOUSE 

BUILDING 

LET  r.s  adopt  the  words  "  hou>e  building  ''  in  place  of  the  pretentious 
and  19th  Century  "  domestic  architecture.""  and  so  begin  forthwith 
by  saying  that  modern  house  building  in  America  occupies  a  posi- 
tion of  singular  and  admirable  distinction.  The  statement  is  quite  safe 
and  boasts  the  added  virtue  of  complete  truth.  There  may  be  those  that  find 
our  official  architecture  artificial  and  verbose,  our  churches  eclectic,  reaction- 
ary and  archeological,  our  schools  either  illiterate  or  damned  by  intensive 
(and  ofifensive)  efficiency,  our  municipal  monsters,  such  as  shops  and  hotels 
and  office  buildings,  menaced  on  the  one  hand  by  the  Scylla  of  anarchic  in- 
dividualism plus  an  intemperate  logic,  on  the  other  by  the  Charvbdis  of 
inherited  but  unaccommodating  "  orders  "' —  I  do  not  know.  But  if  there 
are  such,  the  picking  and  stealing  fingers  of  criticism  are  withheld  from  the 
whole  category  of  house  building. 


Charles  Bartun   Keen,   arcltitccl 

A  typical,  comfcrtable,  commodious  tNpe  of  suburban  house,  l)uilt  sul)staiitially,  of  good 

lines  and  lasting  satisfaction 

31 


32 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Whatever  we  have  done  or  left  undone,  we  have  in  thirty  years  redeemed 
the  architectural  art  of  the  householder  from  the  pit  it  had  digged  for  itself 
in  the  early  and  awful  Eighties,  and  we  now  can  point  with  pride  to  the 
houses  of  good  citizens,  from  Portland  in  the  East  to  Portland  in  the  West, 
and  from  St.  Paul  to  New  Orleans.  Not  to  all  of  them,  of  course,  at  least 
not  in  pride,  but  to  so  many,  and  so  widely  dispersed,  and  by  so  many  hands 
and  in  so  many  so-called  styles,  that  they  mark  the  caste,  establish  the  type 
and  the  argument,  and  rebuke  the  scoffer,  the  pessimist  and  the  prophet. 

It  is  rather  a  fine  thing,  when  you  come  to  think  of  it,  that  owner  and 


Frank    Lio\d     U'riglit.    architect 


The  low  stretch  of  the  Western  plains   has  been   symbolized   in   the   parallel  lines  of 
this  type  of  architecture,  a  characteristic  of  the  work  of  Frank  Lloyd  Wright 


architect  should  have  l^een  aljle  to  work  together  as  they  have  in  this  direc- 
tion :  a  great  thing  that  here  at  least  their  work  should  l^e  so  uniformly  good. 
Charity  and  art  begin  at  home,  or  nowhere ;  the  church,  the  school  and  the 
dwelling  represent  three  of  the  stable  and  admirable  elements  in  a  life  long 
since  horribly  messed  up  with  all  manner  of  inferior  things  that  have  as- 
sumed and  achieved  an  indefensible  priority,  and  here,  at  least,  architecture 
is  dealing  with  real  things.  Neither  owner  nor  architect  could  have  wrought 
the  great  transformation  alone.  That  the  former  should  have  desired,  and 
the  latter  have  oft'ered,  the  increasingly  good  things  that  crowd  the  landscape 
and  the  professional  magazines,  is  a  fact  very  heartening  at  a  time  when 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


33 


the  world  is  hungrily  in  need  of  such  encouragement.  The  house  building 
of  the  last  twenty  years  means  this  in  any  case :  that  there  is  a  fine  and  vital 
and  noble  impulse  in  society  that  may,  in  the  end,  mean  its  salvation. 

Another  point  that  seems  to  me  of  especial  value  is  that  this  good  work  is 
not  only  confined  to  "  high  life  "'  owners  and  headline  architects;  it  is  quite 
as  conspicuous  in  the  little  houses  of  the  less  opulent  and  ostentatious, 
and  at  the  hands  of  architects  whose  fame  is  being  slowly  and  modestly 
built  up  on  the  basis  of  their  good  work,  rather  than  vice  versa.  Indeed,  it 
would  be  interesting,  profitable  and  none  too  difficult  to  defend  the  thesis 
that  the  less  costly  the  house  and  the  less  prominent  the  architect,  the  better 

•-"■  ''•.-•tr  - 


Aymar  Embury   11,   architect 

The  Colonial  style  demands  the  right  environment ;  otherwise  it  is  unsightly.  This 
type  of  the  "  Northern  Tradition  "  adapted  to  modern  needs  has  the  requisite 
rural   setting.     Careful   shrubbery   planting   further   enhances   its   beauty 


it  is  as  art.  ]\Ioney  and  fame  are  the  most  highly  prized  weapons  of  the 
devil  and  many  a  man  rises  from  a  good  cottage  to  a  bad  i)alace:  many 
an  architect  slips  from  the  hard  basis  of  good  art  to  the  ease  and 
plenty  of  a  bad  fashion.  Art  never  begins  at  the  tO])  and  filters  down  —  at 
least,  this  is  true  of  the  art  that  lasts.  It  begins  amongst  the  peoi)le  them- 
selves and  they,  for  their  own  better  expression,  nurture  the  great  geniuses 
that  finally  lift  art  to  its  highest  levels :  men  like  Phidias,  Dante,  Leonardo, 
Robert  de  Coucy,  Bach,  Browning.  We,  of  late,  have  thought  otherwise 
and  have  acted  accordingly,  but  the  best  promises  lie  not  in  the  intensive 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Aymar    J:inhuiy    II.    ar.hitcc. 

Apart   from   it.   general   lines  the  architectural   success  of   a   Colonial  house  depends 
'   upo^the  authenticity  and  placing  of   its   details.     In  this  doorway  a  balance  .s 
established,  the  details  are  simple  and  ornate 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes  35 

products  of  a  highly  speciahzed  and  Brahministic  education,  but  rather  in 
such  instances  as  this  where  the  foundations  are  being  laid  surely  and 
true. 

Of  course  there  is  in  it  all  nothing  approaching  unity  of  stylistic  method 
or  local  and  racial  and  contemporary  originality;  this  is  as  it  should  be. 
Styles  that  are  united,  original  and  unusual,  come  of  a  society  of  like  nature. 
This  quality  we  lack  at  present  in  any  faintest  degree ;  we  have  neither 
racial  nor  social  nor  philosophical  nor  religious  unity.  When  we  have  this, 
as  we  may  gain  it  through  the  present  sifting  of  souls  and  of  peoples  like 
wheat,  we  can  hope  for  a  consistent  artistic  expression.  At  present  the  best 
we  can  hope  for  is  increasing  good  taste,  honesty,  sincerity  and  a  fine  inter- 
pretation of  our  chosen  styles.  It  is  precisely  these  things  we  are  getting  in 
abundant  measure. 

\\'hen  the  last  tradition  of  a  popular  and  instinctive  art  vanished,  about 
1825,  we  forthwith  began  our  search  for  old  styles  to  conquer;  we  found 
plenty  of  them  and  annexed  them  pitilessly,  quite  without  understanding 
what  any  one  of  them  meant,  (jreek,  Gothic,  Italian,  French  Empire, 
Renaissance,  English,  Colonial,  all  were  successively  taken  in  hand,  with 
astonishing  and  even  terrifying  results,  one  being  indubitably  the  production, 
in  the  space  of  seventy-five  years,  of  the  most  awful  architecture  recorded  in 
history.  Xow  we  deal  with  the  same  styles,  with  others  added,  but  mark 
the  amazing  diflference :  where  once  was  a  childish  playing  with  ill-remem- 
bered or  worse-copied  details  applied  to  impossible  forms  constructed  from 
novel  and  supposititious  materials,  is  now  a  keen  and  sympathetic  laying  hold 
of  the  very  heart  of  things,  an  actual  thinking  in  the  terms  of  the  style  and 
after  the  very  fashion  of  its  creators. 

Take,  for  example,  our  own  Colonial,  a  fine  style,  logical,  self-respecting. 
full  of  instinctive  refinement.  When  I  was  a  draughtsman  in  my  first  (and 
only)  office  in  the  early  Eighties,  it  was  just  coming  into  vogue,  and  the 
crimes  committed  in  its  name  were  as  numerous  as  they  were  ingenious. 
Colonial  stands  for  simplicity  of  form  and  perfect  proportion,  but  at  first 
there  was  nothing  of  this  :  we  took  our  fantastical  aggregations  of  blocks 
and  gables  and  round  bay  windows  and  contentedly  applied  our  miscellaneous 
detail  of  broken  pediments,  twisted  balusters,  Palladian  windows  and  what- 
not, and  prided  ourselves  on  our  patriotic  return  to  a  "  national  style."  Of 
course,  we  then  painted  it  yellow  and  white,  with  green  blinds,  and  the 
task  was  triumphantly  accomplished.  When  at  last  a  realization  of  the 
singular  wickedness  of  our  acts  came  to  us,  we  conscientiously  turned  to  a 
careful  study  of  the  existing  monuments,  and  this  was  carried  to  such  lengths 
that  we  went  through  a  period  of  pure  archeology  when  the  careless  addi- 
tion of  Georgian  mouldings  from  Pennsylvania  to  a  structure  couched  gen- 


36  Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 

erally  in  the  terms  of  Salem  Colonial  was  a  faux  pas  so  atrocious  as  to  be 
almost  enough  to  keep  a  man  out  of  the  A.  I.  A.  Pedantic  as  it  was,  how- 
ever, it  killed  the  silly  stuff  of  the  first  kind  and  actually  made  possible  the 
third  —  the  present  —  when  study  and  general  culture  have  produced  a 
working  in  Colonial,  by  innumerable  architects,  that  is  sensitive  and  intimate. 
The  archaic  quality  has  disappeared,  the  houses  are  no  longer  either  bur- 
lesques or  restorations,  and  new  conditions,  new  ways,  are  met  just  as  the 
old  builders  would  have  met  them,  simply,  delicately,  in  good  taste  —  gentle- 
men always. 

And,  as  there  was  great  Colonial  and  Georgian  work  (the  two  were  quite 
different,  as  Mr.  Eberlein  has  shown  in  his  book,  "  The  Architecture  of 
Colonial  America")  in  many  sections  of  the  country  —  New  England,  the 
Hudson  River,  Pennsylvania,  \'irginia  —  each  differentiating  itself  delicately 
from  the  others,  so  in  the  development  of  the  honorable  Colonial  of  to-day 
each  mode  is  used  as  a  starting  point  and  by  men  in  almost  every  part  of 
America.  From  the  beginning  there  is  a  divergence,  both  from  the  name 
itself  and  away  from  all  the  others :  this  is  as  it  should  be.  What  has  been 
accomplished  by  the  Philadelphia  architects  on  the  basis  of  their  own  wonder- 
ful old  stone-work,  by  far  the  most  notable  contribution  to  general  house 
building  in  America,  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  achievements  in 
modern  architecture  —  is  typical  of  what  has  been  done  elsewhere. 

So  has  come  a  very  beautiful  new  thing,  not  an  imitation,  nor  an  affecta- 
tion, but  a  fine  recognition  of  fine  things  and  fine  motives.  Papier  mache 
ornaments  and  stock  columns  and  balusters  have  gone  the  way  of  all  flesh ; 
in  their  place  has  arisen  a  reserved  and  instinctive  feeling  for  those  fine, 
wide  proportions,  those  elements  of  grave  and  well-bred  simplicity  that 
mean  Colonial  and  are  emphasized  by  the  delicate  and  aft'ectionate  detail 
we  can  still  cull  from  the  few  relics  which  are  left  us  along  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board. 

Equally  with  Colonial  (or,  properly  speaking.  Georgian)  the  English  mode 
of  building  has  transformed  itself.  From  the  time  of  the  "  Downing's 
Cottages,"  sporadic  attempts  had  been  made  at  a  revival  of  English  i6th 
Century  work ;  at  first  in  the  quaintly  fallacious  wood  of  the  "  Carpenter's 
Gothic  "  era,  later  in  the  Eighties  with  a  slight  increase  in  consistency.  Not 
that  the  moral  reform  was  brilliant  or  far-reaching:  if  the  "  Strawberry  Hill  " 
fancy  for  translating  the  14th  and  15th  Century  stone  into  the  accommo- 
dating and  economical  medium  of  painted  plank  was  abandoned  for  a 
specious  "  half-timber  "  style,  the  gain  in  structural  veracity  was  not  great 
for  the  construction  was  still  of  studds,  lath,  plaster  and  sheathing,  the 
plausible  "  timbers  "  being  no  more  than  inch  plank  spiked  on  the  outer 
boards,  with  the  intervening  spaces  plastered  —  usually  on  lath.     In  ])oint 


Lozv  Cost  Subiivluui  Homes 


37 


of  form  also  much  remained  to  be  desired ;  instead  of  a  return  to  the  grave 
simplicity  and  the  delicate  relations  of  the  cottages  and  farmsteads  and 
manors  of  Kent  and  Surrey  and  Wilts,  the  tendency  seemed  to  be  to  get  as 
near  as  possible  to  the  self-indulgent  luxury  of  Compton  W'inyates,  even 
if  the  subject  matter  were  a  gardener's  cottage  or  a  bank  clerk's  "  suburban 
residence."  There  was  too  much  "  architecture,"  too  passionate  a  follow- 
ing of  the  specious  and  pictorial  splendors  of  an  ingenious  and  aml)itious 
scene-painter;  all  outside  show,  in  fact,  with  little  of  sense  or  sinceritv  behind. 


An  out-growtli  of  the  plains  type  shown  on  page  2>-  is  the  work  of  younger  architects 
who  work  successfully  in  simple  materials  used  in  parallel  lines 

Note  the  change  here  in  the  last  ten  years.  Of  course  we  have  perfect 
masterpieces  in  the  shape  of  great  creations  like  Trowbridge  and  Ackerman's 
Pratt  house  at  Glen  Cove,  or  ]\Ir.  Pope's  Duncan  house  at  Newport;  master- 
pieces worthy  to  stand  with  the  best  work  of  the  i6th  Century  in  England. 
On  the  other  hand  we  find  in  the  small  and  modest  residences  a  progressive 
getting  away  from  the  over-loaded  luxuriance  and  a  return  to  simple, 
collocjuial  modes  and  manners  that  are  Cjuite  beyond  all  praise. 

Or  take  another  instance,  far  afield  this  time,  the  style  that  is  growing 
up  amongst  city  houses  and  the  villas  of  the  more  exclusive  summer  resorts, 
the  style  that  comes  in  some  sort  of  fashion  out  of  France.  There,  in  its 
original  habitat,  it  is  poor  enough  in  all  conscience,  for  whatever  the  l-Vench 
may  do  in  formal  architecture,  their  domestic  work  is  generally  inexcusable. 


38 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Here,  at  the  hands  of  both  the  older  and  the  younger  men  who  have  come 
from  the  Beaux-Arts,  the  style  they  have  chosen  is  transformed  into  a 
thing  of  beauty  and  sincerity,  and  it  is  easy  enough  to  find  all  over  the  land 
examples  of  actually  exquisite  design  that  expresses  not  only  the  fastidious 
taste  —  both  natural  and  acquired  —  of  the  architect,  but  the  best  that  is  in 
American  society. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  pure  and  very  Italian  classic,  of  which  AIcKim, 


A  suburban   residence   showing  the  use  of   native   stone  pointed  clean.     This  and  the 
picture  on  page  30  show  the  two  styles  of   Pennsylvania  stone  work 


Alead  and  White  were  the  revivers.  Whether  this  follows  along  their  own 
scholarly  and  delicate  lines,  or  adapts  itself  to  the  more  American  modes  of 
Mr.  Piatt,  it  is  all  of  the  best. 

As  for  the  Pacific  Coast,  here  we  find  several  follovvings,  as  diverse  as 
may  be,  but  all  handled  with  rare  vitality.  There  is  the  white  marble 
palace  with  its  Roman  colonnades  and  patios  and  terraced  gardens :  the 
"  mission  "  style,  released  at  last  from  its  artificial  alliance  with  the  spirit 
that  lay  behind  the  trade  furniture  of  the  same  ilk  and  nomenclature,  now 
become  generic,  genuine,  convincing.  There  is  also  that  very  baffling  and 
engaging  sort  of  thing  that  came  from  (iod  knows  where  and  naturalized 
in  time  and  space  along  the  seaslopes  of  the  Pacific,  where  with  its  low, 
flat  roofs,  its  wide.  Thibetan  eaves,  its  curious  combinations  of  horizontals 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes  39 

and  verticals,  its  ingenious  and  unexpected  materials,  it  stinnilates  and 
satisfies  as  do  few  other  forms  of  modern  domestic  building. 

And  so  we  might  go  on  almost  indefinitely,  finding  in  every  region,  at  the 
hands  of  every  architect,  some  new  and  generally  beautiful  way  of  treating 
and  developing  an  old  and  beautiful  style,  from  the  glorified  Pennsylvania 
Dutch  of  Duhring,  Okie  &  Ziegler  to  Mr.  Frank  Lloyd  Wright.  Whatever 
and  whoever  it  is,  it  is  filled  with  a  new  freshness  and  fineness,  it  begins  at 
the  right  place  and  develops  after  the  right  fashion,  with  self-restraint, 
consistency  and  good  taste.  America  may  fail  in  its  State  Capitols,  in  its 
cathedrals,  in  its  universities,  if  you  like,  but  for  the  housing  of  its  own 
people  (if  they  do  not  live  in  flats),  it  succeeds  as  no  other  nation  or  race 
is  succeeding  to-day. 

And  }et :  there  seem  to  me  to  be  two  points  wherein  further  improvement 
is  possible,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  the  owner  has  not  quite  as  much  to  do 
in  bringing  about  these  as  the  architect  himself.  The  first  is  this:  Through 
our  increased  knowledge,  our  improved  training,  our  widening  view  of  the 
world,  we  are  becoming  too  able  and  too  assured.  There  is  too  much 
"  architecture  "'  in  our  building,  and  we  are  in  danger  of  failing  to  see  the 
forest  because  there  are  so  many  trees.  Of  course,  this  is  all  natural 
enough :  the  owner  has  the  thrifty  sense  of  getting  as  much  good  art  for  his 
money  as  his  architect  can  give  him,  and  the  architect  ( if  he  is  not  too  old 
and  tired)  honestly  wishes  to  make  each  work  a  masterpiece,  an  epitome 
of  all  he  knows  —  and  knows  he  knows.  Individualism  is  rampant,  of 
course,  and  the  communal  sense  non-existent,  and  the  result  is  apt  to  be 
what  would  be  obtained  (and  is  obtained)  l)y  a  landscape  gardener  who 
designed  a  park  but  cared  only  for  specimen  trees.  Economy  in  the  use  of 
art  is  a  great  virtue;  the  chateaux  of  the  Loire  and  Touraine,  the  piled- 
up  wonders  of  Elizabethan  palaces,  are  the  sort  of  thing  that  can  be  done 
successfully  once  or  twice,  but  not  constantly. 

Opulence  has  been  the  ruin  of  the  world  now  falling  in  fragments  around 
us.  The  new  spirit  that  will  take  control  after  the  shattering  readjustment 
is  accomplished  will  be  a  dift'erent  thing  altogether,  and  if  the  world  is  to 
continue  at  all,  it  will  be  along  lines  of  simplicity. 

In  the  new  era  a  little  art  will  go  a  long  way,  and  successfully,  just  because 
it  will  be  so  good.  The  white  villas  of  Italy  and  Spain,  the  gray  little  farms 
of  England  and  Xormandy,  the  ascetic  mansions  of  Xew  England  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia,  give  the  key.  For  with  them  form,  texture, 
proportion,  workmanshi})  are  everything:  ornament  and  detail  only  the 
accent.  In  much  of  our  best  work  there  is  enough  intelligent  and  admirable 
design  to  fit  out  a  community  :  this  is  im])rovident  and  it  is  also  ineft'ective. 
If  owner  and  architect  will  content  themselves  with  the  sim])lest  possible 


40  Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 

expression  of  the  needs  of  a  given  case,  all  in  terms  of  good  composition 
and  good  workmanship,  adding  as  little  detail,  as  little  ornament  as  possible, 
one  of  the  two  reqnisites  still  absent  from  onr  honse  building  will  have  been 
attained. 

If  all  the  architects  in  America  should  l)ind  themselves  bv  a  "  gentle- 
man's agreement  "  not  to  use  a  moulding  or  an  inch  of  ornamentation  for 
the  space  of  a  year  it  would  be  the  greatest  thing  that  ever  happened  to 
architecture. 

There  would  be  adequate  compensation  for  such  laudable  self-denial,  and 
this  is  the  second  point  I  am  eager  to  urge.  Those  who  build  houses  in  the 
country  ha\e.  it  would  seem,  learned  all  but  one  thing:  the  fundamental 
importance  of  good  workmanship  and  its  actual  value  as  art.  However 
tndy  fine  and  admirable  are  our  houses,  big  and  little,  in  point  of  design, 
when  they  are  intimately  examined  many  show  the  cloven  hoof  of  poor  work- 
manship. 

This  almost  fatal  aspect  shows  itself  in  many  ways :  in  false  construction, 
in  woodwork  (and  sometimes  carving,  horribilc  dictii)  raw  from  the  machine, 
with  mouldings  bradded  in  rather  than  run  on  the  wood  itself,  and  dressed 
up  with  filler  and  shellac :  in  machine-tooled  stone  and  "  a  good  job  of 
plaster;  "'  in  trick  bricks  and  clean  cut  slates  and  scientific  tiles;  in  "  quarry- 
faced  "  and  "  mill  stock,"  and  paint  and  wall  paper  and  varnish :  more  than 
all,  perhaps,  in  a  slavish  adherence  to  the  formulas  and  the  stereotyped 
methods  of  construction  developed  during  the  dark  years  between  1820  and 
1880,  whereby  architecture  and  craftsmanship  were  reduced  to  the  ignomini- 
ous category  of  a  science. 

As  a  result  of  certain  economic  and  industrial  phenomena,  craftsmanship 
has  completely  and  entirely  disappeared  from  the  world,  and  the  present 
tendency  is  rather  towards  keeping  it  in  its  century-long  seclusions  than 
toward  bringing  it  back.  And  yet,  half  the  virtue  of  every  great  art  at 
every  time  has  lain  in  craftsmanship,  as  nmch  in  painting  and  architecture 
as  in  poetry,  sculpture  and  music.  So  a  knowledge  of  past  arts,  and  a 
sympathy  with  them  such  as  we  have  now,  is  only  half  the  battle  if  we  can- 
not gain  true  craftsmanship  as  well  —  and  a  half-won  battle  differs  little  from 
a  defeat,  if  it  ends  there.  Georgian  mantels  are  good  things,  but  not  if  their 
Grinling-Gibbons  carving  is  moulded  in  putty,  cast  in  compo  and  stuck  on 
with  glue :  a  coltered  ceiling  of  the  Early  Renaissance  is  a  good  thing,  but  not 
if  it  is  made  of  papier  mache,  or  "  stamped  steel,"  and  grained  to  look  like 
wood;  a  Tudor  wainscot  is  a  good  thing,  but  not  if  its  lesion  panels  are  run 
through  a  planing  mill  and  its  mouldings  fitted  in  and  fixed  with  brads. 
^'ou  may  go  even  further  and  say  that  wood  is  good  if  it  isn't  machine 
])lancd,  brick  if  it  isn't  pressed,  stone  if  it  isn't  mechanically  cut.     Apart 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


41 


from  the  roughest  work,  such  as  could  be  produced  by  slave-laborers,  nothing 
architectural  is  good  if  it  is  done  by  machinery:  it  is  the  hand  of  man  that 
counts. 

For  this  reason  the  most  scholarly  design  fails  in  execution,  and  until 
we  get  back  "  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand,"  to  our  wood  and  stone  and 
metal,  our  taste  and  erudition  will  avail  little. 

Can  we  do  this?  Probably  not,  at  least  for  a  time,  because  true  crafts- 
manship cannot  exist  between  capitalism  on  the  one  hand  and  unionism  on 
the  other ;  still  we  can  always  fall  back  on  self-denial,  eliminating  the  art 
that  suffers  most  through  modern  methods. 

Some  of  us  of  late  have  been  experimenting  on  these  lines,  trying  to  find 
how  much  we  can  omit  rather  than  how  much  we  can  obtain,  and  it  is 
surprising  how  good  and  convincing  and  even  beautiful  are  the  results. 
^Mouldings  and  ornaments  of  all  kinds  go  by  the  board  and,  reduced  to  the 
raw  materials  of  wood,  brick,  plaster  and  stone,  it  is  amazing  how  much  can 
be  accomplished  with  a  little  honesty  to  smooth  the  way.  Working  thus 
becomes  another  thing :  the  least  promising  workman  has  in  him  a  latent 
feeling  for  good  craftsmanship,  and  if  he  can  be  made  to  see  that  he,  by  his 
handiwork,  is  responsible  for  half  the  artistic  result,  he  rises  to  his  oppor- 
tunity, union  or  no  union,  and  suddenly  becomes  a  craftsman  and  not  a 
niachine.  Ralph  Ad.vms  Cram. 


In  the  hilly  regions  uf  California,  the  chalet  has  been  successlully  adapted.  It  is  for- 
eign to  the  history  of  the  country  —  which  was  Spanish  —  but  has  proven  natural 
in   the   environment 


4^ 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


A.    Raxinoii.l    lilh. 


A  hollow  tile  stucco  house  of  distinctly  livable  possibilities,  providing  plenty  of  window 
light,  plenty  of  porch  room  and  a  walled  garden  enclosing  the  service  department 


A.   Raymond  Ellis,  architect 

Indirect  entrance  is  effected  through  the 
vestibule  to  the  larger  jiall,  thereby 
assuring  privacy  for  the  family. 
With  a  wing  devoted  to  service,  that 
department  is  properly  isolated 


On  tile  second  floor  is  abundant  cham- 
ber room  for  a  small  family.  Plenty 
of  closets,  and  thorough  ventilation 
are  among  the  other  attractive  fea- 
tures of  the  second  floor 


A  HOUSE  WITH  A  SQUARE  PLAN  IN  HARTFORD,  CONNECTICUT 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban   IIouic^ 


43 


rr 


J-'A^ 


''-'  ^  il    .<^>-?]" 


Nonuiui    Baird    Baker,    arcliitcct 

The  Dutch  Colonial  gambrel  roof  type  of  house  stands  preeminent  for  suburban  life. 
Its  roof  provides  ample  room  and  the  general  lines  are  attractive  and  comfortable 


rj  irjX     tJoox,  "jjin. 


.^^j!x.ond  7\w>r yi^j 


The  house  is  designed  for  a  small  family  — a  beginning  Imme  that  newlyweds  can 
start  in.  It  provides  a  house-depth  living-room  and  a  generous  dining-room,  both 
containing  fireplaces.     Upstairs  the  bedrooms  are  arranged  around  a  central  hall 


SKETCHES  FOR  A  DUTCH  COLONIAL  SUBURBAN  HOME 


44 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Davis,  McGrath  &  Keisslmg,  architects 

Because  of  its  simplicity,  this  small  stucco  house  represents  no  great  outlay  although 
providing  a  comfortable  interior  and  being  decorative  in  its  general  exterior  lines. 
The  tile  roof,  the  well  detailed  entrance,  the  flower  boxes,  and  the  balanced  side 
porches  add  interest.  This  type  could  be  reproduced  in  an  all-wood  exterior  of  wide 
lapped  siding  or  shingles  painted  wliite,  or  by  the  use  of  brick  with  white  trim- 
mings and  shutters. 


A  sun-room  and  porch  off  the  living-room  give  that  room  added  size  for  summer 
use.  The  location  of  the  dining-room  in  the  rear  is  pleasing.  Upstairs  are  two 
baths,  five  chambers  and  a  sleeping  porcli. 


A  SQUARE  COLONIAL  ADAPTATION  OF  SIMPLE  LINES 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


45 


Davis,   McGrath    &   Keissling,   architects 


A  small  balanced  type  of  white  stucco  house,  Colonial  by  suggestion  in  tlie  detail 
of  its  entrance,  side  porch,  chimneys,  form  of  roof  and  dormers.  It  is  essentially 
a  house  calling  for  white  painted  interior  woodwork.  This  design  would  be 
equally  consistent  in  red  brick  laid  Flemish  bond  in  white  mortar,  with  white 
shutters,  porches,  eaves  and  window  trim,  or  by  substituting  white  shingles  laid 
lo-inch  to  the  weather,  and  green  blinds. 


Balancing  the  sun  room  on  the  Ijottom  floor  is  an  extension  on  the  other  side  of  the 
house  containing  the  pantries.  Upstairs,  the  adequate  attic  space  lends  itself  to  an 
increased  number  of  bedrooms. 


FOR  AN  OPEN,  LFVEL,  SUBURBAN  SITE 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


p    be 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


47 


Economy  is   attained  by   so  placing  one  chimney  that  it  serves  a  fireplace,  the  stove 

and  the  furnace 


VIEWS  OF  A  COMMODIOUS  BUXGALOW  COSTING  $4,500 

This  bungalow  was  built  in  northern  New  Jersey  in  a  remote  country  district  where 
there  are  no  sewers,  water  supply  or  gas.  Electricity  was  available,  and  that  gave 
all  the  requirements  for  lighting.  A  pressure  tank  installed  in  the  cellar  and  pro- 
vided with  an  electric  pump  supplied  the  water. 

The  plans  called  for  a  large  living-room,  dining-room,  porch  for  summer  or  winter 
use,  three  bedrooms  and  bath,  and  a  maid's  room  — all  on  the  one  floor.  There  is 
an  abundance  of  closet  space. 

Foundations  were  of  concrete,  the  wooden  frames  later  being  used  for  framing  and 
sheathing  the  building. 

The  roof  is  shingled  with  red  cedar  shingles.  North  Carolina  comb-grained  pme  — 
the  cheapest  floor  that  can  be  laid  — was  used  throughout.  The  trim  of  the  entire 
house,  as  well  as  the  doors,  is  of  cypress.  Plasterboard  was  used  for  the  walls  and 
later  papered,  with  satisfactory  results. 


48 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Siihurhaii   Homes 


49 


50 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Monies 


I- 

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rt     u 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


A  glimpse  of  the  lattice-walled  court  with  enough  of  a  garden  to  care  for  between 
whiles.     In  the  center  is  a  small  pool 


A  chamber  and  the  kitchen   are   built  around  the  court :   tlic   hall   runs   through    fur- 
nishing good  communication  between  rooms  and  excellent  vcntdation 


A  SMALL  HOUSE  WITH  A  PATIO  ON  STATEN  ISLAXU,  NEW  YORK 


52 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Horace    ILitton,    archived 

The  house  shows  the  possibility  of  making  the  most  of  a  narrow  lot 


The   small   conservatory   off   the   living-room   and   an   al)undance   of    porch    space   are 
features   of   the   first   floor   plan 


A  SUBURBAN  MOUSE  IX  ROCHESTER,  NEW  YORK 


Lozi'  Cost  Suburban   Homes 


53 


A  rear  view   showing  tlie   rear  purch   with  its  basement  retreat  and   work   room  and 

the  sleeping  porch  above 


SP 

£0-13 


B  R 


BR 


7 


H  i. 


B  R 


U.«7l  \ 


r^        ]  B 

I  |7.H 

v^p-"     Ml 


^          BR 

4^  ""^* 


4^-\^ 


The  second  floor  was  designed  for  a  small  family  on  the  simple  floor  plan 


54 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


'H^ 


u 


Norman   Baird   Biihcr,    urchitcit 

A  picturesque   cottage  type  designed   for  a   small   family  —  or   newly  weds 


>f^^-  /%a/-  y^T7.. 


By  keeping  the  living  quarters  open  the  first  floor  is  given  a  sense  of  unusual  space. 
On   the  second   door  are  three  bedrooms  and  bath 


SKETCH  FOR  A  HOUSE  TO  COST  UNDER  $5,000 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Iloincs 


55 


Davis.    McCratli    &    Kcissli)ig,    arclutctts 

All  irregular,  simple,  white  shingle  type  of  house  with  green  roof  and  blinds  to  match 


The  plans  here  have  been  reversed  to  show  how  two  houses  of  the  same  type  couUl 
l)e  placed  on  adjoining  lots  in  a  suburban  development 


-  Lmb  tool  V3 
I       


,l|     l^ill.,    ll 


>¥^ 


It  is  a  distinctly  two  story  house,  commodious  and  compact.     The  specitications  call  for 
simple  painted  or  stained  interior  woodwork 


AN  UNUSUAL  BUT  SI.MPLK  SUl'.URBAN  TYPE 


56 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  JJouics 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


57 


< 


A   reception  room  has  its  value  even   in  so  small  a  place.     It  makes  for  privacy  and 

a  more  fitting  hospitality- 


Two  haths,  three  owner's  chambers  and  a  maid's  room  together  with  a  plenitude  of 
closets  make  the  second  floor  attractive 


A  COLOXTAL  DESIGN  OF  EXCELLENT  PROPORTIONS 


58 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


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PA 

Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


59 


■niE-nOMt-0r-DWlCnT-JAnt3-BAUM-AILCniTtCT-R.lVt)t.DMt-A-Y-C 
PLANTI/VC-  DO/<t-BY-  TOONtiL,  WJ^JI  C^  IiAiL/l£TT-LA/<D3Ci\PC.-t/<Cl.Nt:CU 


The  kitchen  in  an  ell.  and  kitchen  and  service  porches  keep  the  servant's  quarters  distinct 


Alcoves   are  always   useful   adjuncts   to  a   room.     Hero   they   have   been   successfully 

included  in  the  upstairs  plan 


6o 


Lozv  Cost  Siibitrbaji  Homes 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Cm 


A  homey,  comfortable  sort  of  bedroom,  gay  with  flowered  chintz  curtains  that  lighten 

the  dark  furniture 


By  placing  the  coucli  before  the  hrt  and  the  tabic  behind  liiat,  this  living-room  would 
gain  in  size  and  attractiveness 


62 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Loiv  Cost  Sitbiirbau  Homes 


63 


he   living-room   has   the  benefit  of   sunlight   from  two  large   sets   of   windows,   com- 
manding the   view 


■U    UUUUUUil 


An  owner's  sitting-room  with  a  small  bedroom  attached  make,  with  the  bath,  a  com- 
fortable  suite 


A  DUTCH  COLONIAL  HOUSE  NEAR  NEW  YORK 


64 


Loi^'  Cost  Suburban   I  Ionics 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


65 


66 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


^v 


The  plans  are  simple  and  livable  —  house-depth  hallway  and  living-room  with  dining- 
room  and  den  on  the  other  side  and  service  quarters  restricted  to  an  ell 


JLCOm  ■  TLQOIL- 


Upstairs  are  four  chambers,  two  baths  and  two  balconies  that  can  serve  for  sleeping 
porches.     Plenty   of   closet    room    is   provided 


A  DUTCH  COLOXIAL  HOUSE  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 


68 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozi'  Cost  Suburban   Homes 


69 


The    hallway    is    distinctly    CoJi.r.i.il    in    uxatment  —  white    woodwork   and    mahogany 

stair-rail 


The  same  Colonial  character  is  shown  in  the  hedrooms  with  their  four  posters,  open 

fireplaces  and  rag  rugs 


70 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Davis,   McGrath  &■  Keissling,   architects 

This  formal  balanced  type  of  white  stucco  house  with  light  brown  tile  roof  and  shut- 
ters to  match  in  color,  savors  of  an  Italian  feeling  by  its  simple  mass,  plain,  low 
roof  and  the  arch  motif.  The  type  admits  of  stained  interior  woodwork  and 
substantial  hangings  and  furniture. 


'^iiMiTiff  ni  1 1  fi  irt 


A  balanced  arrangement  of  rooms  both  upstairs  and  down,  and  the  general  openness 
of  the  plan  make  it  desirable  for  the  small  family 


A  STUCCO  HOUSE  OF  SMALL  PROPORTIONS 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


The  roof  lines  of  this  half-timbered  cottage  type  have  striking  individuality.  In 
fact  the  construction  of  the  entire  house  —  its  successful  combination  of  stucco, 
brick  and  half-timber  —  makes  it  quite  out  of  the  ordinary 


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1" 

On  the  first  floor  the  plan  is  open,  giving  a  greater  sense  of  space.     Upstairs  economy 
of  hall  space  makes  the  chambers  of  good  proportions 


A  HALF-TIMBERED  COTTAGE  TYPE 


72 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


V 


nrd  Baker. 


For  a  rocky  headland,  such  as  this  house  is  situated  on,  the  type  is  excellently  adapted. 
Being  of  simple  stucco  construction,  it  is  an  inexpensive  outlay  for  short  time 
residence  although  permanent  in  construction,  attractive  in  exterior  line  and  com- 
modious indoors 


AX  ATTRACTIVE  SEASHORE  COTTAGE 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


7?> 


In  the  living-room  and  dining-room  advantage  is  taken  of  light  from  three  sides,  the 
kitchen  being  at  the  rear  between  these  two  rooms 


.'~i=<i  7>'. 


:,^*i^.^ 


IW<;j«-|  _^, ^ 


An  attractive  feature  of  the  second  floor  is  the  cross  ventilation  afforded  by  the 
way  and  the  two  front  bedrooms,  a  desirable  feature  for  a  summer  home 


hall- 


74 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


/  r> 


Keniirth    If.    Dalzell,    architect 

The  foundations  and  chimney  are  of  rough-dressed  sandstone,  the  exteriors  red  cedar 
shingles  painted  white.  White  oak  and  comb-grained  pine  has  been  used  for 
flooring  throughout  the  course 


■nurr  tloor  plab- 


BID  ROOM  2 


q 


P 


•/tCOHO   TLOOR  fWIt 


The  house  is  developed  on  a  square  plan,  providing  central  hallway  with  commodious 
living-room,  small  dining-room  and  porches  on  the  first  floor.  Four  chambers 
and  porch  are  above 


A  SHINGLE  HOUSE  OF  MODERATE  COST 


76 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


// 


An    enclosed    porch    doubles    the    living-room    space.     Hall,    dining-room    and    living- 
room  communicate  through   wide  doors 


The   open   stairs   and   hallway   make   a   light   airy   spot  on   the   second   floor.      \   littU 
dressing-room  is  a   feature  of  the  owner's  suite 


A  COMPACT  LITTLE  DUTCH  COLONIAL  MOUSE 


Lozv  Cost  Siibiirbaii   Ffouics 


Lozv  Cost  Siihiirbaii  Homes 


79. 


8o 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


8i 


82 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


83 


riDJT-  rtOOD  -  PLAN  ' 


A  library  back  of  the  central  hall  is  reserved  for  the   family  circle.     The  kitchen  is 
isolated  from  the  main  part  of  the  house 


■jtconv  ■  riooB  •  plan  ■ 


The  solarium  of  the  second  floor  rear  can  readily  be  converted  into  a  bedroom.     Tiie 
third  floor  contains  store  room,  sewing  room  and  maid's  room  and  bath 


A  HOLLOW  TILE  AND  STUCCO  HOUSE 


§4 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozi'  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


85 


Although  the  hall  on  the  first  floor  is  large,  it  does  not  waste  space.  The  living  and 
dining-rooms  are  well  proportioned.  The  side  porch  is  wide  and  has  a  cement  floor 
and  a  fireplace 

A  HOUSE  TO  SUIT  THE  AVERAGE  FAMILY 


Among  the  other  specifications  are  the  following:  House  faces  north  and  a  vestibule 
is  arranged  for  winter  use  only.  Refrigerator  in  pantry  designed  so  that  it  may  be 
filled  from  outside.  Kitchen  isolated  from  balance  of  house  and  has  cross  ventila- 
tion Private  bath  for  main  chamber  has  a  shower  bath  in  marble  stall  instead 
of  a  tub  \  closet  with  dust  proof  wardrobe  and  window  provided  also.  Room 
over  kitchen  may  be  used  as  a  library  or  chamber.  Sleeping  porch  shown  over  rear 
portion.     Main  and  rear  stairways  are  provided. 


86 


Lozv  Cost  SiiJiiirbaii   TTonics 


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Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


«7 


One  chimney  serves  living-room,  fireplace  and  kitchen.  The  second  floor  presents 
four  bedrooms,  three  of  which  are  double;  one  bath  and  ample  closet  space.  A 
unique  feature  is  the  bathhouse  under  the  landing  of  the  stairs.  The  kitchen  yard 
is  cement  and  a  lattice  screens  it  from  the  living  porch 


A  SUCCESSFUL  SEASHORE  COTTAGE  COSTING  $4,618 

The  lot  is  40'  wide  and  125'  deep.  Although  raised  only  2'  above  ground,  the  house 
is  not  damp  owing  to  the  good  draught  beneath  the  bottom  floor  and  the  double 
thicknesses  of  building  paper.  The  porch  is  on  the  ocean  side.  The  cost  of  the 
house,  including  all  fixtures  and  architect's  commission,  was  $4,618. 


88 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


LoziJ  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


89 


On  entering  the  hall  to  the  right  we  have  the  living-room,  well  placed  and  accessible 
to  both  the  hall  and  dining-room  and  entrances  to  both  the  front  and  rear  porches 


The  second  Hour  shows  four  well-arranged  bedrooms  witii  ample  closet  room,  a  store- 
room, a  bathroom  and  the  balcony  arrangement  around  the  stair  hall 


A  DUTCH  FARMHOUSE  COSTING  UNDER  $10,000 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Houh 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


91 


i 


rf 
t 


A  complete  segregation  of 
the  service  departments 
—  kitchen  and  laundry  — 
gives  greater  privacy  to 
the  living  quarters.  The 
wide  porch  is  a  character- 
istic of  the  locality  and 
mode.  It  is  set  directly 
on  the  ground  with  a 
cement  floor.  French  win- 
dows and  doors  lead  on  to 
this  porch 


Upstairs  the  rooms  are  laid 
out  on  a  square  plan 
around  a  central  hallway, 
providing  room  enough 
for  the  average  family. 
Closet  space  is  plentiful. 
Store-rooms  and  rooms 
for  servants  are  on  the 
third   floor 


rot-eK         »,«.f 


02 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban   Ilonics 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


93 


jg:,.-c..^.^  M 


V      L.       A      K 


The  porch  on  one  side  and  terrace  on  the  other  make  the  house  especially  adaptable 

for  summer  occupancy 


-P       L.        A       NI 


Upstairs   are   four   chambers   and  bath   witii   sleeping   porch.     Servants"   rooms   are   m 

the  attic 


STUCCO  AND  STAIXED  SHINGLES 


94 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Kenneth   H'.   Dalsell,  arelntcet 

A  $5,000  HOUSE  FOR  A  SMALL  FAMILY 

The  walls  are  red  cedar  shingles  painted  white.     Comb-grained  pine  has  been  used  for 
flooring.     Woodwork  on  the  first  floor  is  stained  brown  and  painted  white  upstairs 


A  breakfast  porch  and  a  large  pantry 
afiford  accommodations  not  usually 
found  in  such  a  small  house 


Irregularities  here  and  there  where  tlie 
roof  breaks  the  wall,  give  interest  to 
the  bedrooms 


LcTc  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


95 


Lev-'is    Colt    Albro,    architect 

Its  lines  are  those  of  an  English  cottage.     The  building  is  frame-finished  with  stucco 
on  wire  lath.     The  roof  shingles  are  stained  red 


The  plan  of  the  first  floor  shows  a  one-room  depth.     It  is  simple  and  open  in  design 

with  a  central  hallway 


AN  ENGLISH  COTT.\GE  IN  NEW  JERSEY  COSTING  $5463 


c)6 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


97 


The  porch  can  lie 
enclosed  in 
winter,  making 
another  living- 
room.  The  ves- 
tibule and  hall 
arrangement  is 
interesting 


The  second  floor 
plan  does  not 
allow  for  much 
head  room,  hut 
the  roof  gives 
to  each  room 
a  striking  in- 
dividuality 


A  SMALL  BRICK  HOUSE  OF  IXDIVIDUALITY 


98 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


5   >^ 


-  o 


o 


>.    rt 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


99 


-FlR5T-Fl-00?R.-PLAN- 
O  10 go  _    ,      30 


OE  COND-FlOOR;  PL^N  - 

Closet  room  both   upstairs   and   down   is   generously  planned.     On   the   first  rioor  an 
interesting  feature  is  the  sun  parlor  and  outside  fireplace 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  SUBURBAN  RESIDENCE 


lOO 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


lOI 


'SECOND-FLOOR,'  PLAN' 
liOU5E   FOK- MR.^.  IL.A.  Bf^OWN. 

KE.W    HAVEN,   CONN  . 

On  the  first  floor  the  service  quarters  occupy  one  entire  side,  the  same  arrangement 
olitaining  upstairs  where  two  halls  make  this  privacy  possible 


AN  ENGLISH  COUXTRY  HOUSE  IN  NEW  HAVEN,  CONNECTICUT 


I02 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


10' 


The  living-room  and  corner  porch  have  been  so  placed  as  to  command  the  view.  A 
breakfast  room  with  a  fireplace  is  an  attractive  feature  of  the  first  floor.  The 
second  floor  provides  for  four  chambers  and  a  bath. 


A  SUBURBAN  RESIDENCE  OF  THE  MIDDLE  WEST 


I04 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Hornet 


Lozv  Cost  Siibuvban  Homes 


lo: 


The  living  and  dining-rooms  face  the  side  yard,  the  sun  porch  and  breakfast  room 
look  over  a  formal  garden.  It  is  an  arrangement  that  gives  abundant  light  and  a 
pleasant  outlook 


The  house  has  been  built   for  a  small   family.     Ilenco  the   two  chambers.     As  it  is 
situated  in  California,  the  sleeping  balcony  serves  as  a  third  bedroom 


io6 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


107 


The  hallway  is  furnished  in  a  quiet  key  with  aialu.gany  cuttings  and  trnn. 
are  covered  with  a  neutral  tone  paper 


The  walls 


loS 


I^ozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Murphy    cr    Uana,   architects 


A  HOUSE  OF  SPANISH 
PRECEDENTS 


Both  in  its  exterior  line  and 
its  interior  arrangement 
this  house  is  unusually 
attractive.  The  stucco 
walls  make  an  excellent 
background  for  the  plant- 
ing. Commodious  kitchen 
quarters  are  a  commend- 
able  feature 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban   JIouics 


TOO 


Martin    &    Kiltalrick.    aychitccts 

Throuo-h  the  unusual  cambrel  roof  treatment  this  little  house  possesses  a  striking 
individuality,  a  departure  from  the  Dutch  Colonial  precedents.  Stone  whitewashed 
is  used  on  the  first  story  and  shirgles  above 


Hall  space  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum  on  both  floors.  One  large  chimney  serves 
the  heating  and  cooking  agents.  The  arrangement  is  convenient,  home-like  and 
pleasant 


STONE  WALLS,  WHITEWASH  AND  SHINGLE 


no 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


III 


# 


m 


The  plans  are  such  as  can  be  reduced  for  a  house  of  smaller  proportions.     They  are 
simple  and  yet  interesting,  especially  in  the  treatment  of  the  stairs 


In  reducing  these  plans  one  of  the  chambers  could  be  eliminated,  leaving  the  front 

bedrooms  with  the  best  view 


A  SEASHORE  HOUSE  WITH  SBIPLE  PLANS 


I  12 


Loiv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Kcllv   &   Graves,   architects 


The  lines  of  an  English  cottage  are  here  reproduced  in  a  New  England  home  througli 
the  medium  of  wood  construction,  the  exterior  being  white  painted  shingles 


The  arrangement  of  the  service  department  is  especially  notewortliy.  an  arrangement 
embracing  every  equipment  conducive  to  the  expeditious  handling  of  household 
activities 


Storage  room  is  provided  under  the  roof  so  tbat  none  of  the  bedrooms  are  cut.  A 
rear  stairway  leads  to  a  bedroom  that  can  he  used  citlicr  by  family  or  servant, 
entrance  being  effected  through  a  closet 


Loii'  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


113 


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A  study  of  the  plans  and  elevations  of  this  small  house  of  English  type  shows  what 
modern  construction  can  do  to  make  an  artistic  house  of  moderate  cost 


114 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


STUCCO  AND  THATCH 
IN  A  SOUTHERN 
SUBURBAN  HOME 


By  laying  the  roof  shingles 
thatch-wise  and  leaving 
the  stucco  rough  finished, 
the  similitude  of  cottage 
construction  has  been  giv- 
en this  house.  Its  lines 
and  plans  could  both  be 
reproduced  on  a  smaller 
scale 


nTTTTT 


Lozu  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


II 


Carctto    &   F'i---'tcr,    architects 


A    SMALL    ROOMY    HOUSE    FOR 
THE  SUBURBS 


The  combination  of  red  brick,  in  white 
bond,  vari-colored  slate  and  white 
wood  trim  make  this  an  interesting 
house  to  look  at.  A  study  of  its  plans 
prove  the  interior  to  be  no  less  attrac- 
tive and  livable. 


ii6 


Lozv  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


Low  Cost  Suburban  Homes 


1 1 


I  i  u^ 


n    i  ') 


Every  inch  of  space  is  used  so  that  the  living  quarters  will  both  appear  and  be  large. 
This  is  done  without  sacrificing  comfort 


The  sleeping  alcove,  an  adjunct  tnat  miglit  well  be  included  in  all  su1)urban  houses, 

serves  for  an  extra  bedroom 


ii8 


Lozv  Cost  Siihurhan  Homes 


A  lieavy  curtain  separates  dressing-room  and  alcove  so  that  the  sleeping  quarters  can 
always  be  cool  without  chilling  the  rest  of  the  room 


The  color  scheme  of  thb  living-room  is  nuilherry  draperies  and  rug,  copper  and  green 
fireplace  and   putty  colored   paper 


Low  Cost  Suhurhau  Homes 


119 


The    dining-room    and    den    open    directly    from    the    In  uig-ru.  .ui,    hnt    can    be    easily 

separated  by  draperies 


\ 


The    dining-room    ,>    tini^hcd    m    .iKer    ;4ray    oak    with    the    cretonne    curtain    motif 
repeated  upon  the  buffet  doors 


120  LoiD   Cost  Suburban  Homes 

For  the  beiietit  of  those  readers  who  desire  to  comnuuiioate  with  the  archi- 
tects of  the  houses  shown  on  these  pages,  the  following  list  of  names  and 
addresses  is  appended : 

Albro,  Lewis  Colt,  2  \\'est  47th  Street,  Xew  York  City. 

Haker,  Xorman  Kaird.  16  Ingram  Street,  Forest  Hills,  L.  I. 

Hates  &  How,  542  Fifth  Avenue,  Xew  York  City. 

Haum,  Dwight  J.,  Waldo  Ave.,  Riverdale,  X\  Y. 

Caretto  &  Forster,  30  East  42nd  Street,  X'^ew  York  City. 

Cram,  Ralph  Adams,  15  Beacon  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

Davis,  McGrath  &  Keissling,  Flatiron  r>ldg.,  Xew  York  City. 

Druckenmiller,  Stackhouse  &  Williams,  Land  Title  Bldg.,  Phila.,  Pa. 

Duhring,  Okie  &  Ziegler,  1218  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Ellis,  A.  Raymond,  36  Pearl  Street,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Embury  H,  Aymar,  132  Madison  Avenue,  Xew  York  City. 

Faulkner,  Albert,  320  East  67th  Street,  X'^ew  York  City. 

Hammit,  Howard,  103  Park  Avenue,  Xew  A'ork  City. 

Hanker  &  Cairns,  Scimeter  Bldg.,  Memphis,  Tenn. 

Hatton,  Horace  T.,  Cutler  Bldg.,  Rochester,  X.  Y. 

Hunt,  Myron,  &  Elmer  Grey,  Wright  &  Callender  Bldg.,  Los  Angeles,  Calif. 

Ingraham,  George  Hunt,  2A  Park  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

Keen,  Charles  Barton,  Bailey  Building,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Kelley  &  Graves,  57  Mt.  Vernon  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

Lee,  W.  Duncan,  Travelers  Bldg.,  Richmond,  Virginia. 

Little,  J.  Lovell,  Jr.,  15  Beacon  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

Martin  &  Kirkpatrick,  130  S.  15th  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Miller,  Claude,  Denville,  X.  J. 

Murphy  &  Dana,  331  Madison  Ave.,  New  York  City. 

Putnam  &  Cox,  91  Spooner  Road,  Chestnut  Hill,  Boston,  Mass. 

Purdon,  James,  8  Beacon  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

Phillips,  Watson  K.,  430  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Schermerhorn,  C.  E.,  430  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Wright,  Frank  Lloyd,  220  So.  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago,  111. 


university  of  CaMornia  p, 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  UBRARYFACIUT^^^^ 

305  D.  Neve  Dnve_  P?*"p9,^°\r90095-1388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CAur  borrowed 

Retumthismatenal^ 


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